


Bonds

by Jinmukang



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2019-11-15 17:01:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 35,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18077420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinmukang/pseuds/Jinmukang
Summary: Requests I get from Tumblr, may as well put them here too.





	1. Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Since you said that you will be open to Linked Universe suggestions, I have something on my mind that I wanted to write, but will never get around to bc I'm already working on a bunch of other fics. I was wondering if you would be interested in doing a fic on how Legend's experience in Kololint has affected him. I love Link's Awakening and the release for the remake of it has pumped up my spirits."

Legend blinked, clearing the blurriness from his eyes. His head ached, sending pings down from the back of his skull, down his spine, and through each part of his body. He was lying on his side, facing tall grass that poked up from beneath his sleeping mat.

Hylia, was he exhausted.

He groaned and went to push himself up, but he immediately regretted it when his head began to spin. Something tightened in his stomach and something else rose to his throat. He moaned and collapsed back onto the mat, just barely managing to swallow down sick.

He recognized the symptoms of a concussion, though he didn’t remember how he had managed to get one, but in the end amnesia was a symptom as well. Goddess, was this how Wild felt?

He forced that thought out of his mind and tried again to push himself up. He moaned when his stomach attempted to rebel, but he pushed through it because he just had to know what happened. He’d ask Time. Time would give him the stone cold facts. The others would just make his headache worse…

He finally managed to get himself into a sitting position with mild dizziness. He sighed and lifted his hand to his forehead and began to look around the campsite.

He was alone…

“Guys?” He yelled, or tried to, but it came out more like a croak. His throat was parched already, but seeing no one around him made his whole mouth go dry.

It was silent, nothing but the birds chirping above him in the evening sun and the grass rustling. There was no one. No one was around him, gone. Was his hands shaking?

“Calm down, Link,” he whispered, his voice high and panicked. “C-calm…”

He breath caught in his throat. It had to be the concussion. That’s why he’s freaking out. He gasped and spun around, hoping that maybe the other eight of his group were behind him like it was just a prank, but they weren’t there.

“GUYS!?” He screamed. No no no nonono where did they go? Why weren’t that answering? His head was spinning and his heart was beating a mile a minute. He felt like he needed to throw up.

“Not again…” He found himself whispering, “not again, please no, not again-”

Tears were leaking down his cheeks, and in any situation he would be appalled by it, but this time he couldn’t feel anything but a deep agony stabbing his chest and choking his heart.

“Please…” He gasped, because he didn’t want it all to be a dream. He can’t have made fiends again only to lose them all to a stupid dream. Sure, Sky was full of himself and Warriors had a stick up his ass, and the others all had their own annoying quirks, but that didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate them. Didn’t want them to stay. Didn’t want to be friends with them. He broke into a sob, because oh Hylia don’t do this to him again.

He can’t wake up alone again.

He felt his chest wracking as his throat made strange noises. He felt like he was dying, it hurt so much. He was alone. Awake and alone. He crumpled down and bent over so he was on his hands and knees. He gagged as his stomach rolled. It hurt so much.

Alone. Awake. Alone alone alone alone.

A dream.

All he was aware of was his hands digging white knuckled into the ground, grass leaking through his fingers and tickling his arms. Wet drops, tears, fell onto the back of his hands and his hair fell into his face.

How crewel. Every time. Every time he finds people who he can trust, they disappear. Whether it’s to another world or… or to a fake one.

His shoulder were shaking, though not of his own sobs like he had thought for the first few shakes. A warm grip was around his shoulders, and… there was a voice.

He took a gasping breath, confused. The echoing around him became sharper.

“-end! Legend!”

His heart felt like it had been electrified. Before he could even think that his head was injured, he was spinning around and grabbing at the figure behind him. He didn’t know what he was doing, all he knew was that he was so scared and so hurt that he’d cling willingly to the nearest body.

“Woah-” the figure gasped as Legend wrapped his arms around it. The body was warm and tense, but it was real. The green tunic was familiar. The build of the body beneath it too. He couldn’t help the sob of relief that escaped his throat when he recognized who it was.

“Tell me you’re real,” he said between gasps and tears, “tell me you’re real.”

“I’m…” Hyrule said, sounding unsure, but that one word was enough to make Legends whole world soar. “I’m real. I’m here…”

Legend buried himself deeper into the tunic with his hands wrapped so tightly around the torso of Hyrule. It took a second for Hyrule to hesitantly return the hug. Legend gasped and memorized the feeling, the feeling of a real person.

Not a dream… Not a dream… This is real…

Real…

And he knew it was completely out of character. He’d blame it on the concussion later, but in that moment, he cried a long time as so many years of hurt let itself out like a draw bridge.

“Don’t let me wake up alone, again,” he whispered. “Promise me.”

Hyrule swallowed but tightened his grip around Legend ever so slightly.

“I promise.”


	2. (Not) Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey, having read your answer to anons question, can you write a fic where the zora armor breaks and wild freaks out cause he broke miphas gift? And if you want maybe even add an explanation of who she was to the other links(for extra angst)? Love your fics and i cant eait for more!” -Anon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angst with a shot of Wild

Wild grunted as the Lizalfols lunged it’s sharp boomerang at him, just managing to block the blow with his shield. There were a whole group of them, rushing out from nowhere when Wild and the rest of the Chosen Heroes finally made it up to the East Reservoir Lake. Their original plan was to relax by the fresh cool waters before they left the Zora’s Domain the next morning. Wild was going to show them the land marks and prepare a subtle lunch (he dressed in his Zora armor and everything), but the moment they finally made up the long staircase to the top of the large dam, they were met with dozens of Lizalfos making themselves at home in the water.

Monsters were getting strangely confident, and this was proof of that. Never before had these creatures, or any monsters in general, made their base in these waters. Battle instinct took over and soon, all the heroes were in a tense combat, outnumbered by strangely strong monsters.

Though, it wasn’t like the battle was an actual struggle. Every single one of the heroes have defeated unimaginable evil, being outnumbered by Lizalfos was really just a pebble compared to the mountains they had faced. It just wasted energy and diminished good moods. Wild could already hear Time grumbling that they should have just moved on instead of trying to find time to take a break.

He huffed and shoved his enemy back. The Lizalfos stumbled backwards and wasn’t allowed any time to recover before Wild was slashing his sword across the monsters chest. The Lizalfos gurgled as black blood began to ooze from the wound, but it wasn’t down yet.

“Only four more!” Times voice rang out from behind him. Wild couldn’t see anyone or anything from where he was, fighting at the edge of the blue stone dock. “Hyrule, go help Wild-” Time continued, sending out orders like a natural born leader. Although, he didn’t do that very often, but Twilight once shared his thoughts on it in secret to Wild, saying the old man was the eldest of the group, it was natural he’d begin to feel like a dad with too many rowdy kids.

Wild dodged another swipe of the boomerang. He could hear footsteps coming his way, so he suspected the battle wouldn’t take much longer. Maybe he could take down the Lizalfos before Hyrule came to help?

He grinned and dove forward with his sword outstretched before he stabbed downwards into the monsters leg. It howled in rage and pain, and then did something unexpected. Instead of trying to retreated like most Lizalfos did when an enemy was too close to it, it swung out it’s armed hand and slashed at Wild’s stomach.

He felt sharp metal tear through his armor and scratch at his stomach, tearing through a thankfully small amount of skin. The most he would need to heal it would be a few bandages maybe, but that wasn’t what made his heart leap to his throat.

There was a reason he never wore the Zora armor to battle.

He stumbled backwards with pounding ears and it suddenly hurt too much to breathe. He hardly even noticed his name being called, nor Hyrule striking the Lizalfos down with a killing blow to the gut, yelling. He was too busy clawing at the hole- the hole in the armor. Blood seeped through the small wound and got on his fingers but he was too panicked to care about that. He was hyperventilating, not caring about the cold stone beneath him or the vibrations of multiple running steps getting closer to him.

There was a tear in the hundred year old fabric. His own blood was getting on the edges, staining his most precious garment. He was gasping now, hyperventilating.

_You break everything! Get away from the glass!_

A glare.

_Respect this blade._

Disappoinment.

_Perhaps we can spend some time together?_

False trust.

He breaks everything he touches. Hylia, even Hyrule was broken because of him. Now… now this very precious item was torn, little threads of animal hair and wire stuck out at odd angles. Little threads that had probably taken her so long to hand weave. Little threads that she had meant to give to him as a proposal after they had succeeded.

He’s sobbing and someone is shaking him, waving their hands out in front of him. He doesn’t listen. Why won’t he? He never breaks down like this in front of people. He’s able to easily bounce back from the toughest of situations… always.

Why is this breaking him?

_Scraps of memories aren’t enough to remember someone._

Someone is grabbing his hands and tearing them away from his stomach. A strangled gasp escapes his throat and he’s suddenly looking into the eyes of Legend. Behind him was Twilight, looking concerned but he wasn’t stepping any closer. Time also stood in his field in vision, in front of the rest of them. Hyrule was off to the side, nervously folding his arms across his chest.

“Wild, look at me,” Legend said.

Wild tugged at his hands, his bloodied hands, trying to get free because they were all to close to him. He breaks everything… weapons… master sword…. relationships… trust… precious gifts….

“You need to calm down,” Legend said a bit more harshly. His grip on Wild’s hands did not relent. “You’re hurting yourself.”

“B-broken-” Wild gasped, his fingers twitched as he looked down at the tear. “Mipha…”

Goddess, why was it so hard to speak? His hands twitched again and he tugged harder against Legends restraining hold.

Time walked and kneeled next to Legend. “Let go, he needs to sign.”

Legend shook his head. “He made a small scratch look like a horror scene, I’m not letting go till he calms down.”

“Every-” Wild gasped, gulping in air but feeling like he wasn’t taking anything in at all. “Breaks- goes… dissa- disappoint- ”

He sobbed and Legend scooted closer, his gentle hold still on Wild’s wrists. “You mentioned Mipha?” He said quietly, softly, calmly. Everything Wild was not. “Why did you say Mipha?”

Wild shook his head and looked back down to the hole.

Legend spoke up again. “She gave that to you?”

Wild found himself nodding, his fingers twitching, signing in the best way he could.

“She made it,” Time said, watching Wild closely. His voice was sad, like he knew what that meant. To be given such a precious thing from a Zora.

He was hyperventilating again and he couldn’t control it. He’d had panic attacks before… but he could usually spot them coming. He could disappear from the people around him and suffer alone. He’d never had one on front of someone, let alone a whole group of someone’s.

“Wild, breathe,” Legend said gently lowering their hands and placed then against his chest. “Like this: breathe.”

Wild desperately clung to the deep movements of Legend, it took a few seconds for Wild to match that. With every breath, the world focused just a bit more and the stinging pain in his stomach became more apparent. Legend continued to coach him on breathing until he decided Wild was calm enough to continue.

“Tell me about Mipha,” he said kindly, something so unlike him.

Wild found himself nodding. “Beautiful,” he said reverently, “she… she knew me. When I was…” His moved his fingers.

“A kid,” Time finished.

Wild nodded. “Fell in love. With me, I- I don’t know if I- but she always healed me, even when… I was an idiot. Even now… she still does…”

He lowered his head and wiped at his tears with his shoulder.

“Shouldn’t,” he choked, “I break everything, she shouldn’t- even her precious gift…”

“You’re upset because of the armor,” Legend concluded, “she made this for you, a testimony of her love, and now it has a hole.”

Wild let out a sob and bent forward so his head was leaning against their hands still against Legends chest. “I break everything- always- messing up-”

“No, let’s focus on the armor,” Legend said, suddenly letting go of Wild’s hands. He brought his own up to Wild’s armor, and Wild almost flinched. He brushed his fingers around the damage and tutted. “This is what’s wrong now,” he said as Wild slowly drew his arms to his chest, wrapping them around himself. “If you focused on this, you can see there’s a way to fix this,” he said.

Wild looked up in surprise and Legend shrugged. “All I would need is a little needle and thread, then it will look good as new.”

“You sew?!”

Legend ignored Fours surprised comment and looked into Wild’s eyes. “There, problem solved. I can fix this easily. I grew up with a blacksmith and his family. They taught me how to make things sometimes,” he continued even as Four’s surprised squawking got even more loud with Wind joining in. “As for the rest of your problems, you don’t break everything. Sure, a sword or two will randomly explode on you, but it’s not like it’s your fault. You don’t break everything because Hyrule is safe now, and Zelda is back in her castle, and we’re here with you. You’re not broken, Link.”

Wild burst into more sobs, but this time out of sheer… happiness. He never knew how much he had needed to hear those words, and while it was surprising that Legend was the one to tell him them, he was still relieved beyond belief.

His armor can be mended, and it won’t be the same, but it wasn’t broken. He’s not broken.

Suddenly, he was in the embrace of Twilight, his mentor and best friend after Zelda herself. He let out a wet laugh and returned it. Suddenly, Wind was jumping in and Hyrule following not too long after. Four strolled over and patted Wild on the head and Time stood off to the side, smiling. Legend pushed himself to his feet and was probably about to call it a job well done, but suddenly Sky was grabbing him, Time, and Warrior and dragging them into the awkward group hug.

Wild laughed so hard he forgot the pain from the cut in his stomach, as it was replaced with aching abs.

“Someone’s on my foot!” Wind suddenly gasped, triggering a sudden laugh fest from every person in the hug.

Wild loved these guys, but he was sure that if anybody came you to check on them, they would all be looking a whole lot of idiots.

-o-o-o-o-

“Seriously, get off my foot…”


	3. Scars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: Sometimes, even the Heroes of Courage needed to take a rain check.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoohhh-kaay. So. The next few weeks is gonna be filled with me updating all my request fics from Tumblr onto here. I sort of forgot I wanted to put everything on AO3, and now there's a couple dozen short fics. Oops.

The moment Time opened his eyes, he knew it would be a miserable day. He shifted in the stable bed and groaned as multiple places on his body pinged with a familiar pain. He brought his hand up to his face and rubbed at his right eye, starting above the eyebrow and traveling down to his cheek. The sound of rain puttering rather quickly above his head met his ears, as well did the distant roar of thunder.

Wild warned them all that it rained a lot in his Hyrule. Time had been hoping it was a joke because in no version in Hyrule did it rain enough to be considered “a lot”. Yet, the moment they stepped into Wild’s world, it had been lazily dripping rain, not enough to hinder any travel, but it was enough to remind him of old wounds.

He groaned when he slowly lifted himself up from the bed and hissed when a scar flared up with vengeance near his gut. It was worse this morning, the night before it was just an annoying ache around each of his major scars, but now it felt like he was regaining each one.

“You too, huh?” Came Legends voice. Time slowly put his feet over the edge of the bed and turned to the other hero, of which was leaning over the edge of his own bed, feet planted on the floor with one hand resting on a knee. The other hand was tugging down the collar of his tunic and rubbing at what looked like an arrow wound. Legend noticed Time looking and smiled slightly. “Dart. Lots of then in the swamp temple. Hated that place.”

“I don’t think anyone here had ever enjoyed a water themed temple,” Time chuckled, trying to ignore how the bone in his ankle practically burned.

Legend gave a rare, genuine smile before the sounds of life from the other occupants of the stable caught their attention. Wind was rubbing his side while sitting at one of the tables pushed by the door, though he looked more annoyed than in pain. Twilight was next to him, staring at a plate of food with his fingers twitching, like he was desperately trying not to grab at any healed wounds. Warrior was looking at a health elixir like he was considering using it. Sky was still in his bed, but he was definitely awake, if his face screwed up in pain was anything to go by. Four and Hyrule were both in similar boats, both grabbing at different parts of their bodies and hissing through clenched teeth. Wild was still buried under blankets, probably still asleep.

There were other occupants in the stable—if Time remembered the name correctly it was the Lakeside Stable in a Regon called Faron—all of whom were travelers and workers that Time didn’t feel the need to acquaint himself with. There was a merchant, a man named Beedle that multiple members of their traveling group seemed shocked to see; he was leaning against one of the support pillars of the stable, playing with a small yellow bug Wild had randomly handed over to him the night before. Each of the members of the stable had, at first, given the heroes all suspicious looks, but when Wild explained they were all with him they were welcomed warmly. They were a good people, which surprised Time because if he understood correctly, each of these men and women grew up in a post apocalyptic world.

Thunder rumbled again and rain slammed against the ground and roof. It was loud, considering that the stable doors were still wide open. There was a breeze flowing inside the building, yet it was warm and humid, making Time sweat ever so slightly. Wind and Twilight didn’t seem to be bothered though. They were probably used to humidity.

He pushed himself up from the bed and walked over to where Wild was curled up under the sheets so tightly that Time could only spot patches of dirty blond hair. If he had judged it correctly when he had looked outside the stable door, it was past morning, and if they wanted to make any progress that day, they would have to leave soon. Wild’s Hyrule was enormous. Ridiculously so.

He placed a hand on a bump under the sheets which must have been a shoulder. He ignored the stinging pain in his rib cage as he shook Wild gently, but hard enough to wake him up.

“Time to get up, cub,” he said.

A small whimper met his ears as an answer.

He stopped shaking and pulled his hand back like he had touched fire. Wild’s shoulder was stiff beneath the layers of blankets and he wasn’t curled up like one would be if they were sleeping. He was curled up as if he were in pain.

He swallowed as a theory of what was going on formed in his head. He scolded himself ever so slightly for not seeing it coming. Every Hero of Courage had scars, but Wild had the worst.

He gently bent down and grabbed the edge of the blanket. He began to pull it back and Wild curled up tighter as he did so. When he had pulled the blanket down completely he sighed sadly. Wild’s eyes were squeezed shut tightly as his whole face screwed up in what must have been agony. His hands were digging into his arms and his knees were brought up so that they were touching his chest. Small drops of liquid leaked from the corners of his eyes.

“Cub…” he whispered.

Wild’s ear flicked. He wearily opened his eyes and glanced up at Time with red rimmed eyes, like he hadn’t gotten much sleep at all.

“S- sorry-” Wild whispered. “I ju… just… it’s not usually th-” he cut himself off with a whimper and squeezed his eyes shut again.

“Is he okay?”

Time turned his head and saw Twilight approaching, limping slightly. Behind Twilight, the other heroes have all gathered, trying to peek around Time and Twilight to see Wild, all of them had probably figured out what was going on.

“I don’t know. He’s in pain,” Time replied. He turned back towards Wild and rubbed at the scar over his eye.

Twilight came closer and kneeled down next to Wild’s bed, studying the younger heroes face. “You think a fairy or-”

“N-no,” Wild whispered and then opened his eyes again. He took a deep breath that definitely sounded strained before he began to force his arms under him, pushing himself up with a barely restrained groan. “D-don’t work. I’m- ah- already healed. I’ll be okay…”

Twilight jumped up to his feet and backed up a few steps as Wild practically stumbled out of the bed. Time brought his hands forward, fearing Wild would fall over, but Wild stubbornly managed to balance himself. Wild took a deep breath.

“See? I’m okay.”

He took a single step, and promptly stumbled with a pain filled whine at the back of his throat. Twilight surged forward and grabbed Wild under his armpits. Wild groaned as Twilight maneuvered him back to the bed. He set Wild down and Wild took deep breaths, eyes closed tight once again.

“What do you usually do when it rains?” Time asked as Twilight backed up, hands out like he expected Wild to fall over again.

Wild hissed as he shifted, bringing this knees up to his chin and wrapping his arms around his shins. “Tough it out…” he said quietly, “it’s… Not usually this- this bad.”

“Well, what do you do when it _is_ this bad.”

Wild glanced up at Time and immediately Time knew the answer.

 _Toughed it out_. Wild wouldn’t have had the time to stop and nurse his pains. Time imagined him fighting monsters in a thunderstorm, traveling miles upon miles, hours and hours, with the constant feeling of pain. Time frowned at the thought.

Wild must have taken his expression the wrong way as his facial expressions suddenly went panicked. “B-but I can still travel,” he stuttered.

Time had to carefully control his expression to not frown more. Wild was constantly worried about being a disappointment. So he instead put on a smile.

“Know what? We’re all hurting today,” Time said. Wild glanced up him with an eyebrow raised, “let’s just wait till the storm passes.”

Wild was quiet for a second, before he hesitantly tilted his head as far as he could go without angering his scared flesh too much. “You sure? I c-” he stopped, wincing.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Time said. “We all need to be at our best, so waiting it out would be smart.”

Wild’s shoulders slumped slightly, relaxing. “Okay…”

“Get back into bed, I’ll see about getting you some more blankets. Warmth helps.”

Wild nodded and slowly lowered himself back into the bed with no further protests. In the next few minutes, the whole of the stable were grabbing bed sheets (with the stable owners permission of course) and piling them on top of Wild—who was embarrassed and was apologizing the whole time, but literally no one minded. Wild was a very well liked person.

Soon enough, Wild was fast asleep under a mountain of blankets while every other Hero of Courage wasted their time arm wrestling or playing chess or wondering what the heck the //Rumor Mill book was talking about as they tried to ignore their own pains. The storm passed slowly overhead for the rest of the day, and by the time the sun rose again, it was bright with not a single cloud in the sky.

The group said goodbye to the stable and began their trek along the path towards the next closest stable, all feeling well rested.

As they walked along the soggy mud paths, Wild jogged forward to match step with Time. Time grunted a greeting and Wild smiled.

“Thanks,” Wild suddenly said.

Time looked over at Wild who was looking a million times better than what he had the day before and smiled kindly. “It’s no problem, cub.”


	4. Blade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time’s sword is gone and Sky is hurt, unconscious. When cornered between a raging monster and the sword laying by Sky’s limp hand, Time is forced to make a choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyy! Another upload! Gonna try and keep these daily until I have everything here.

The monster raged, it’s one eye darting rapidly as blood oozed along the cuts in the organs flesh. Time hadn’t ever seen anything like the beast before him, but granted he had never seen most of the monsters rampaging through Wild’s Hyrule. He didn’t know the name of this one, only that it probably started with an H.

It was just him and Sky fighting the creature. The rest were at camp happily enjoying themselves. Time had volunteered to fetch water from a nearby river and Sky offered to come along. According to Wild, the area they were in would—at most—house low level Bokoblins, so he didn’t argue to head along with them; just wished them luck as he began to chop up endura carrots.

Who knew the simple act of fetching water could go so wrong? Time and Sky were in the middle of refilling leather water pouches and gathering the precious liquid in a large bowl Legend somehow happened to have on him when suddenly there was a loud _snap_. The echo of the noise ricocheted across the land, scaring small critters from their homes and startling the two heroes from their chore. The next second found them watching, as if in slow motion, as a hunk of tree flew through the air at a deadly speed, just barely missing them.

The log fell into the water, bringing up a massive amount of splashing, soaking both Sky and Time to the bone, but like the seasoned warriors they were they both took out their weapons and turned just in time to see a giant cyclops quickly running towards them. It’s moves were uncoordinated, like a toddler, and it’s limbs and stomach had skin stretched to the limit with the fat surrounding its skeleton. It’s single eye was glaring right at them.

Instantly, Time knew it’s weakness would be the eye. He let Sky in of his theory and soon enough they were both jumping into battle, just the two of them with absolutely no backup.

The fighting went good for a little while. Sky, being the more nimble of the two, would wield his cursed sword and would climb up the monsters body, hashing at it’s eyes until it roared and fell back, covering the organ with its oddly skinny hands. Time would then run up with his own weapon and slice across its fatty stomach and legs until it recovered and stood up again with black blood dripping from its socket like tears. A horrid frown pulling at its ugly face.

That was the pattern. Hit the eye and try to tear it apart while it was down. Yet, it seemed even Wild’s creatures were mysteriously getting smarter. Stronger. Soon, both Sky and Time were covered in their own wounds.

The monster screeched when Sky once again stabbed at the thick tissue of its eye. It shook its head and brought its hands up, forcing Sky to retreat. Time lept forward and stabbed at the creatures legs and stomach, but it’s reaction time was quicker this time around. He just barely managed to back off when the monster swung a heavy arm downwards, he felt the blow hit his sword and tear it out of his hands. His sword went flying out from his hands with a violent jolt. He gasped as the force of the blow traveled down to his very bones and quickly jumped backwards as the monster jumped to its feet and stomped hard onto the forest floor, shaking the ground.

Time didn’t see where his sword went.

“Sky!” He called, backing up further as the monster swept it’s hands around, knocking down trees. “Lost my sword!”

“Got this,” Sky replied, adjusting the Master Sword in his hands with a look of pure determination.

Sky sprinted forward with his arm outstretched, ready to hit the creature once again, but the monster this time was ready. It grumbled loudly before it’s hand wrapped around a nearby tree, and before Sky could do anything it swung at him with the tree like it was a bat, hitting him dead on.

“Sky!” Time screamed as Sky was violently thrown through the air. He heard a sickening thump as Sky hit another tree, dropping the Master Sword and slumping down to the ground, blood dripping from his head onto the white cloth around his shoulders.

The monster yelled again, it’s eye bright with fury, and Time, for the first time in a long while, had no idea what to do. His sword was gone and Sky was probably seriously injured. The beast was going to kill them both, violently, and the others wouldn’t even know until they looked for them, finding their corpses.

_MASTER_ , a familiar voice yelled.

Time’s whole world stopped. His ears rung and his breath caught in his throat as his eyes slid from the monster towards the sword lying on the ground next to Sky’s limp hand. He knew that voice. He’d never forget it. Hylia, he wanted to. He vowed never to touch the sword again, keep it’s cursed blade as far from him as possible. He moved on with his life, got married, and was almost able to go a day or two without the nightmares it had caused him. When he met the other heroes, one by one, he was incredibly relieved to hear that each of them put the sword away when they were done with it, that none of them had it with them. The turmoil that stirred in his gut when the last one showed up, covered in scars and looking like he had been camping in the woods for years, with that ever familiar sword strapped to his back was indescribable.

Why did he still have it?

He vowed to never touch it. Sky had offered each Link a chance to hold it again, but Time has refused. It was a curse, it was nothing that he wanted to ever associate himself with ever again.

Yet now, he knew what he had to do. His whole body wanted to rebel against it, to run away and hope he can find his own sword hidden in the undergrowth, but he knew that could get both Sky and himself killed. The monster was too strong to hope it would give him the chance to find his weapon. He had to take up the blade for the first time in decades, shattering that promise he made with himself.

The world sped up and he was running. The monster roared and swung the tree around again. Time ducked and rolled on the ground, narrowly avoiding losing his head, and grabbed the hilt of the sword mid roll.

He stood up, the weapon held in front of him, glinting blue in the sunlight. Flashes of memories, bad ones, rolled through his brain the moment he touched the blade. His stomach rolled, tightening and twisting as his fingers struggled to hold still. He felt terrible, but the monster was stumbling towards him with a whole tree still in its grasp, leaves, branches, roots and all. Sky was unconscious behind him, continuing to bleed from a head wound, probably sporting multiple broken ribs. Time could not let himself fail just because of the sword, the damn sword he hadn’t ever wanted to see again.

He yelled, lifting the Master Sword higher, and began to charge at the monster. He dodged as the monster swung the tree and continued sprinting. He was able to grab onto it’s limb, and he immediately hefted himself up ran up the arm towards the monster’s shoulder.

The creature gurgled angrily and with it’s other hand it tried to squash him, but he was able to jump, grab onto it’s head, and lift himself up so he was shakily balancing on top of it. It’s eye spun wildly and it stumbled, trying to reach him with its short, fat arms. Time took a deep breath and grabbed the hilt of the master sword with both hands, holding it straight downwards, before he thrusted downwards with all of his strength.

The monster _screamed_ as the blade pierced straight through its iris. It stumbled backwards and waved it’s arms desperately, but Time didn’t relent. Letting out a rage filled yell, he pressed downwards, arms shaking with effort to bury the sword deeper; for a moment the memory of him pushing the sword back onto its pedestal flashed through his mind. Black ooze squirted, landing on Times face as it’s scream raised in pitch. A large thump shook the land as its legs gave out on it and its arms went limp. Blood seeped through its wounds and dripped lazily as it slumped forward, its agonized scream cut off. Soon, Time was falling to the ground as black smog flowed around him and evaporated into the air. Nothing was left of it.

Time’s legs felt as strong as a blade of grass. His knees buckled and he fell to the forest floor, the sword still in his hands. He was breathing hard, harder than what he had in a long time, and his whole body was shaking like it was a leaf in the wind.

He blinked, and he was seven years old. So naive. The grand walls of the Temple of Time surrounded him as he placed three beautiful stones in their place. The ground rumbled as the wall began to move. It was dark in the secret room, but when he stepped inside his breath was taken away at the sight of the sword, slumbering in the stone for who knew how long. Navi edged him on, and soon enough his tiny hands were wrapping around the hilt as his legs dug into the ground, using every last bit of strength to lift the sword. Everything went black.

Time shook his head. “No,” he rasped. His head bent down and his eyes stared at the blade in his hands, his chest heaved. “Enough, it’s _over_.”

The world blurred and he was still a young boy, but in the body of a teen. He was standing in the midst of Castle town, ReDead everywhere. Not a single living soul to be seen. He was fighting a dragon, swimming through icy water, fighting illusions and creatures that still continued to haunt him.

“Enough!” He yelled. He squeezed his eyes shut but the flashes, the memories continued. Wet traveled down his cheeks and his fingers clawed at the blade’s handle. “Enough, already…”

He bent lower on to the ground and touched his forehead to the ground. Hadn’t the sword taken enough from him? Yet, here it was again, forcing him to wield it another time, bringing back his most painful memories. His mistakes. His fears. His demons. All he wanted was to make a life for himself. All he wanted was to marry the love of his life and start a family, live _normally_.

All he had wanted was a fairy.

His chest shuttered and he desperately tried to regain his breath. He couldn’t panic. He wouldn’t allow it. He opened his eyes, blinking through the tears and turned to see Sky, still laying there, incredibly still. What was he doing? He was better than this. He shook his head, forcing it clear, and shakily pushed himself to his feet. The Master Sword was heavy in his grip but he pretended it wasn’t there. Sky was hurt, incredibly so, and he could not waste his time feeling sorry for himself. He took a step forward and swore when his legs gave out on him. He was shaking like a newborn horse.

He yelled in frustration and tried again to walk, and this time he managed to get to Sky before he fell a second time. He let the sword drop to the ground as he lifted his hands to check the wounds covering Sky’s body. He was just inspecting the head wound when he heard running footsteps charging from the woods behind him.

Terror overtook him at the thought of having to get up again, take upon himself the Master Sword once again to fight, but panicked voices called through the trees. Familiar voices.

“TIME?! SKY?!” Called Twilight.

“Over here!” Time yelled out. He wiped his eyes against his shoulders and looked back towards Sky, thanking his lucky stars that his friends had thought to look for them. They probably heard the monsters last dying screech. Wild would have recognized it. Warned them.

A couple seconds passed and soon seven heroes were bursting into the battle ground, staring wide eyed at the wreckage of toppled trees and unearthed undergrowth.

Twilight swore when he saw Time and Sky.

Hyrule pushed past and ran over to them, already digging through his travel bag and pulling out health positions.

Time sighed and sat back with his knees folded under him. Twilight was ran over and was helping Hyrule with Sky while Four took it upon themself to check Time.

“You fought a Hinox,” Wild said with his eyes wide, pulling at his scars. He stepped further into the wreckage of the forest but was stopped when Legend grabbed his arm, looking furious.

“I thought you said there were only low level monster here,” he said. Time winced, both from Four poking at a cut above his eye and from how Wild’s mouth opened in a horrified _Oh_.

“I’m-” Wild’s voice gave out and he jolted his arm out from Legend’s grasp so he could raise his Hood above his head.

“It’s not Wild’s fault,” Time said before anyone else could do anything. “Something is happening with the monsters of each of our Hyrule’s, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Sky and I should have taken more weapons and should have been more prepared.”

Legend thankfully looked apologetic before he looked down to the ground. Wild gave him a gratefully yet still sorry glance from beneath his hood.

Time sighed and tried his best to relax himself against Four’s gentle hands. He glanced down towards the forest floor and saw the Master Sword laying on the ground. He sighed and closed his eyes.

“You okay?” Twilight suddenly asked. Time opened his eyes and gave the pup a half smile.

“It was a difficult battle,” he replied, “that’s all.”

Twilight didn’t look convinced but his attention was quickly diverted when Sky groaned, the health potions taking effect. Time let out a breath of relief and smiled when the Four turned away from him to also check on Sky. Warrior walked up and gently lifted the Master Sword, cleaning the black blood that stained it’s blade as everyone else took steps forward, all smiling in soft relief.

Wind came stumbling forward with a sword practically twice as tall as him in his arms.

“Found your sword,” Wind said with strangled gasp and Time chuckled, forcing himself to his feet and taking the sword, returning it to its place behind his back, and turning back to check on Sky who was looking confused.

They were all fine. He was okay. Sure, the whole universe was falling apart, making it possible for each incarnation of courage to meet, but right now they were all alive and only slightly ruffled.

Later that night, they all sat around the fire, eating Wild’s cooked beef stew. Sky was sitting across the fire, polishing the Master Sword, laughing with Four.

Time sighed, watching the blade glint in the star light and returned to his meal, pretending everything was truly okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be sure to tell me what you thought of this chapter in the comments! I may not be able to respond to all of them, but I do read all of them! Comments keep me going!!!


	5. Glide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey so I’m just gonna hnnngh and drop this suggestion but uh. The Links passing through Tabantha bridge and being a little bit completely freaked out to see a uhh whole DRAGON flying through the ravine?? And then being more freaked out when Wild deadass jumps from the cliffs, shoots its horns with his bow (narrowly escaping the fireballs), grabs the shard, and soars back up top? Turns out he got it so that his cold resist potions would last until they made it to Rito village but still, wtf Wild.” -anon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one shot!!! Enjoy

A cold wind blew over the land as multiple feet walked the dirt path below. The sun was just rising, barely managing to illuminate the land through the towering cliffs that surrounded them. Morning birds sang joyfully, though the travelers’ didn’t join them. They were tired; it was 5 in the morning.

“How can you be so awake?” Legend grumbled, rubbing at his face. Wind was stumbling around behind him, with eyes half closed.

Wild turned back to the group and smiled brightly, bringing out multiple groans. Four even shielded their eyes, mumbling: “too bright…”

“You guys are going to like Rito Village,” Wild said happily as he began to put more of a bounce in his step, “it’ll best if we get there as early as possible.”

“This isn’t early…” Warrior groaned, “this is hell.”

Wild rolled his eyes and continued to walk down the path towards the Tabantha Great Bridge. “Watch,” he said, “you’ll thank me for waking you up.”

Even Time looked a bit skeptical at that.

Silence fell over the group as Tabantha Canyon came I to view, hushing everybody with awe. Wind ran past the group and jumped onto the Great Bridge, though it could hardly be called great. Hyrule was still under construction after the long reign of Calamity Ganon, and while the bridge was rickety and old, it was still safely useable, therefore not that high on the massive list of things that needed to be fixed. Wind let out a gasp as he leaned over the railing, staring at the jutting cliffs.

“It’s huge!” He said.

Legend huffed and joined Wind on the bridge. “It’s impressive,” he said as he folded his arms across his chest, “I’ve seen deeper.”

“Where?” Warrior said, giving Legend a look of disbelief.

“Look!” Four suddenly yelled, pointing into the distance. The rest of the group joined them on the wooden bridge, with varying amount of curiosity, and looked at where Four was pointing.

“What is that?” Twilight asked, squinting his eyes.

In the distance, a great beast was coming into view. Amazement fell over the group as the creature walked the air, fire at it’s breath.

“Is… that a dragon?” Time asked.

Wild simply nodded then backed away from the group silently as they admired the beast. Time looked nervous, as did the rest of the group, but Time did have reasons to be offensive around Dragons.

“It’s so beautiful,” Sky said, leaning his elbow onto the bridge and resting his cheek on his hand.

“Yeah…” Hyrule replied the returned to his previous open mouth gaping.

The dragon let out a deep roar that sounded like it came more from the chest than the mouth. It’s long body coiled and danced in the wind as it’s feet clawed at the air. Fire radiated from it’s face and neck, bringing the cool morning temperature up to a sweaty hot. A heat filled gust of wind burst up around them.

Twilight backed up as the Dragon approached closer. “Maybe we should get off the-”

A blur of blue and blonde streaked last them, and before any in the group could even call out in surprise, Wild was free falling from the bridge.

“Wild!?” Twilight yelled and rushed back to the railing of the bridge.

The whole group surged forwards as they watched Wild expertly pull out his paraglider and begin to glide closer to the dragon. The dragon let out a warning growl and the hot flames it created intensified dramatically. Balls of fire flew off it’s scales, surrounding it’s face like a shield. Yet Wild gently tilted left and right to avoid the fire. Twilight growled when he realized how practiced Wild moved around the dangerous creature. He’d done it before. Many times.

“What’s he doing?” Legend asked.

Wind was gaping and leaning so far over the railing that he was just a small push from falling, but he looked away long enough to give Legend a helpful shrug before returning to their awe.

Wild jolted as the fire around the dragon made a powerful updraft and Twilight nearly had a heart attack from the stress of watching. Wild strategically closed and opend his glider, lowering himself so he ended up right in front of the beast’s head.

The whole group holds their breath as Wild folded his glider one last time before grabbing his bow, knocking an arrow, and firing all within the blink of an eye.

“Holy shit,” Warrior gasped, “he shot it!?”

The dragon roared angrily as cracks traveled throughout the surface of it’s horn where the arrow had pierced. A bright flash of light burst though each crack until it blown off a whole chunk of horn, throwing it into the deep canyon below.

The dragon teared at the air with it’s feet as a glutal growl echoed along the cliff walls. They lost sight of Wild as the dragon lifted into the air at a violent angle.

“Get back!” Time yelled. He grabbed Four and Hyrule by the backs of their shirts and dragged them backwards as Twilight practically carried Wind away from the rails. The others at least had enough sense to back off.

Heat exploded around them as the Dragon began to rise along the side of the bridge. It’s jaw opened and steam puffed from it’s nose as it climbed higher. The bridge shuddered as two sets of clawed arms wrapped around the wooden railings for a second before it used the leverage to push itself higher.

The group watched with wide eyes and frantically beating hears, not a single one of them were breathing, whether it was because they were holding their breath or the lost it all at the pure magnificence of the dragon before them. The flooring rattled and the wind tore at the faded bits of fabric decorating the rails as the dragon made one last push with it’s hind legs into the air. Soon, it was high above them, racing and spinning towards a group of clouds that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere high above in the sky. A vortex of some kind.

“Where is he?” Twilight said once he gained his voice back. Wind ran back to the edge of the bridge and leaned forward with one hand above his eyes, the other resting in one of the deep grooves the dragons claws had made in the wood of the railings.

“There he is,” Time said, pointing to where Wild was gently gliding down towards a flash of bright light that looked like a star had fallen out from the night sky. He was so far away that he looked like a small bug, but they could clearly see him grab the chunk of the dragons horn and stuff it in his bag like it was no big deal.

Wild walked around the small ledge before finding a good spot and crouched. Blue fire erupted from his feet and finger tips, releasing a large gust of wind that Carried Wild up closer to the top of the canyon.

“I can’t believe him,” Twilight muttered before he turned from the group and sprinted off the bridge. The rest followed him as he ran along the side of the cliff where Wild would most likely show up, quite a ways away from the path they had been traveling before.

“He’s going to get himself killed someday,” Twilight continued, ranting, as the group waited restlessly. He poked his head over the edge of the cliff only to see Wild climbing up the side like it was a completely normal thing to do after shooting a dragon. “Going to kill _me_ someday,” Twilight muttered before beginning to pace the cliff.

“At least we’re all awake now,” Wind said helpfully.

Legend groaned and Sky smiled.

A few more minutes passed, minutes filled with Twilight constantly peering down to check on Wild’s progress like a worried mother bear until Time decided enough was enough and pulled him back away from the edge. Finally, Wild’s hand shot up and scrambled at the edge of the cliff until he found a good holding spot so he could bring up his other hand. Twilight shot forwards and grabbed Wild by the lower arms and helped heft him back onto flat land.

Wild was panting slightly, red at the cheeks with a look in his eye that certainly match his namesake.

“Are you okay?” Time asked, offering Wild a hand. Wild grinned and took the offer. He stumbled a bit when he reached his feet, probably from the overexertion of climbing an entire cliff, but was otherwise completely fine. He was smiling ear to ear.

“What we’re you thinking!?” Twilight burst out.

Wild shrugged. “Can’t pass a dragon by,” he said, “dragon parts sell for a lot.”

Twilight looked horrified as Wild hefted his traveling pack around his shoulder and began to stroll back towards the bridge.

“H-hey!” Twilight yelled as the rest of the group began to follow. Time joined them after giving Twilight a look that said _sympathy_ and _now you know how I feel_ at the same time. “I’m not done with you!”

He heard Wild chuckle before he turned his head, still smiling.

“Hurry up!” Wild called back. “Don’t wanna be left behind!”

“This isn’t over!” Twilight yelled back before he grumbled to himself and began to sprint after them.

What a handful and difficult child his prodégé was, though no matter what crazy stunt Wild pulled off, Twilight wouldn’t change it for the world.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to let me know what you thought of these chapters! Even a small one. A tiny "nice" would suffice.
> 
> Till next time! <3


	6. Benefits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m not too sure how big of a Zelink fan you are but could you write about the other links meeting Wild’s Zelda? Like everyone else is ready to bow and be all forming but Wild just straight up runs at her. And then Zelda pulls a Steven Universe and says smth like ‘I’ve been waiting to kiss your cute face,” (if you haven’t seen Steven universe I’d recommend it it’s pretty cool)” -anon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh! You guys are all so kind with the comments on the last chapter!!!! Thank you!!!
> 
> This one is one of my personal favorites and one of my most popular uploads on Tumblr, I hope you guys enjoy this one too!

The stable could be seen through the distance and Time couldn’t be more relieved. Everyone was aching; Wild’s Hyrule was such a wide and vast place, most of the others in their group were simply not used to traveling long distances like him. Wild was the only one not stopping every few minutes to rub at his feet or take a gulp of water. Four and Wind were both exhausted, thankfully Sky offered to carry Four on his shoulders and Twilight did the same with Wind.

They would have stopped earlier, but Wild told them a stable was close by and after a few minutes of discussing the issue, it was decided that a soft bed with a roof over their heads was more desirable than the hard forest floor with the chance of rain.

“That’s the Riverside Stable,” Wild said pointing at the towering building that looked like a horse head.

Riverside Stable was a very fitting name for the building. It bordered a beautiful river with little bridges connecting small islands where goats laze around, eating grass and enjoying the company of their shepherd dog. Soft music could be heard as they approached and the air of civilization whispered over them.

“Let’s go,” Twilight said, sweat lined the top of his forehead and his arms were slightly trembling with exhaustion as he carried the practically asleep Wind.

Legend took the first move towards the stable with Warriors following close behind. Time gave the rest of the group the go ahead before they all began to follow after. As they walked, Time noticed Wild’s eyebrows come together.

“What is it?” He asked.

“There’s soldiers…” he said quietly. Time looked back to the stable and sure enough, there were two armed soldiers standing guard at the entrances of the stable, not allowing Legend (who was yelling at them) inside.

“Are there usually not?” Time asked wearily. Everything about Wild’s Hyrule was almost barbaric, not that he’d tell them that. Time was used to a land filled with guards and soldiers watching over and protecting every inch of their land. He was used to order. Not the hastily glued together pieces of Wild’s world.

“We don’t have a big enough army,” he said quietly. He reached up and brought down his hood and began to stride over towards the stable.

Time looked at the others before following after.

“I’m sorry, but we cannot let you in-” one of the soldiers were saying. He was strong looking, like he’d lived doing labor his whole life. The stature of knight, yet his armor looked like a rusted puzzle instead of what a knights should be. The other soldier looked much the same.

Wild ran up and shoved Legend aside before a fist fight could commence. The soldiers looked shocked for a moment as they stared at Wild with wide eyes glinting behind their rusted helmets.

Legend rubbed his arm and glared. “Wild, what the-”

“Sir Link!” One of the soldiers said, gasping.

And before anyone could do anything, both the soldiers fell to their knees in a low, respectful bow. Time stopped and Twilight gave him a confused look with Four looking at the oddity with half open eyes full of interest.

Wild took a step back, as if he himself were shocked by the action, but he shook his head and cleared his throat, but no noise came out. The next shock came when Wild signed, and the soldiers _understood_.

_What are you doing?_

“We cannot let travelers in, sir,” one soldier said, slowly rising to his feet. The other nodded as the stable master leaning against the counter scoffed. “The Queen needs to freshen up-”

“Queen?” Wild asked, his voice choked with surprise. His mouth hung open and his eyes flicked past, trying to catch a glimpse inside. _She’s here_? His hands asked.

The other soldier nodded, “we’re returning from Hateno Village, Queen Zelda has had a long trip and needs to-”

“Zelda!?” Hyrule gasped, voicing the other’s surprise and shock. Even Time found himself shocked at the information, sure, it’s been a few decades in his time, Zelda eventually married and became queen, but… they were older. Zelda in this world couldn’t be older than eighteen. It seemed the others were also expecting a princess, not a queen.

A feminine voice suddenly called out from inside the stable. “Are you not letting people in again?” The voice asked, sounding annoyed. “This is a traveler’s stable, not a royal-”

The voice stopped as a girl dressed in a blue traveling cloak and brown trousers stepped out of the stable and ended up with her mouth open, standing right in front of Wild. Her hair was golden and her eyes were a beautiful green. Time didn’t have to ask who she was, and neither did the others in their group.

“Link,” Zelda breathed.

Time watched as Wild stared at her. Wild had never told them what his relationship with Zelda was, in fact, he hardly spoke about her unless he was talking about his fight against Calamity Ganon, which was very rare.

Suddenly, Zelda surged forward and grabbed Wild around his jaw and smashed her lips against his. Behind Time, Sky gasped and Wind made a small snort of disgust, yet Time remained silent as Wild gently wrapped his arms around her waist and returned the kiss hastily. She broke it for a moment, running the tips of her fingers lovingly across  his scared cheek. “I’ve been waiting to kiss your stupid face,” she said.

They stared at each other before a moment more before Zelda pushed herself from him, smiling at the rest of the heroes. Wild too turned, though he was blushing hard enough to almost hide the scars on his cheeks, clearly he had forgotten the rest of the group were there.

“Where are my manners,” Zelda said, as she folded her hands in front of her and smiled, “I’m Zelda, and you all must be-?”

-o-o-o-o-

Zelda and her small group of knights decided to stay the night at the stable with the heroes. She didn’t seem surprised to hear about how each of them were previous incarnations of her hero, more fascinated than anything. She sat them all down by the fire and practically grilled them on their own Hyrules… or more of the kinds of things in their Hyrules.

“Interesting, so you’re able to play songs with plants?” She asked Twilight, leaning forward. Twilight laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. Everyone was preparing themselves for a graceful maiden, not a geek. Not that that was bad, just surprising.

“You’ll have to teach me,” she said, “I have never thought that plants could create music, I was always more interested in the properties they pass on when consumed.”

“Yeah,” Twilight said awkwardly. Time smiled and brought his hands a bit closer to the fire toward the chilling night away.

Wild smiled and leaned against Zelda, “he collects bugs, too.”

Her face lit up and she launched into a list of her favorite kinds of bugs and why they’re interesting while Twilight gave a helpless look to the smirking Wild. She was in the middle of explaining why the Energetic Rhino Beetle was so important to the ecosystem before she cut herself off with a gasp. “I need to get something, I just remembered-” she untangled herself from Wild and half sprinted over to the Stable entrance. The two soldiers gave her a “here we go again” look as she ran past.

Wild was grinning over at the stable when suddenly Legend nudged Wild. Wild yelped, rubbing his upper arm. “What?” He asked.

“So what are you?” Legend asked, leaning back into the makeshift log chair below him. “Future king of Hyrule?”

Wild opened his mouth and gapped like a fish, blood rushing to his cheeks. “N-no! It’s not-” his hands rushed in front of him before they were slammed onto his face, hiding his ever growing blush. “It’s not like that…” he whispered.

Legend laughed and Warrior smirked as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Ah,” he said, “so it’s friends with benefits.”

Wild whimpered and moved so both of his arms were wrapped around his face, curling into himself, as the multiple voices broke out into laughter. His protests went unheard.

“Wild, you sly dog!” Four said, laughing.

Time rolled his eyes as the laughter continued. Wild kept trying to tell them they were wrong but he was too flustered to mutter more than quiet no’s and shake his head.

Twilight too was smiling until Wind nudged him. “What’s friends with benefits? What’s that?”

Twilight looked at Wind with horror as Time also came down with the realization that they had a child with them. “Warrior!” Twilight snapped, “there are children present!”

“Hey!” Wind protested.

Warrior had the decency to at least look a little shamed as the laughter died down. Wild looked relieved beyond measure that the attention was taken from him. Awkward silence sat around the campfire until Wind spoke up again.

“Is no one going to answer me?” He asked. When no one answered, all looking at the fire or in random directions into the sky, he growled and stood up. “I’m not quitting till I get an answer.”

“Um,” Hyrule said, he cleared his throat when Time gave him the _don’t you dare_ look, “it's… friendship is the benefits. Just- ah… super close… friendship.”

Wind didn’t look convinced but Zelda decided to return at that moment, stacks of papers towering in her arms. “Sorry I took so long,” she said, plopping down next to Wild, “I had to search for all of them in my travel bag…”

She brought the papers out and placed the stack on her legs, nimble fingers flicking the corners of the pages. “I heard laughter?” She said, as she searched through the papers, “I’m curious to what was so funny?”

Wild looked horrified for a moment and no one could stop Wind from folding his arms across his chest and speaking. “Just about how you and Wild are friends with benefits.”

Zelda visibly started as Legend desperately made motions with his hands, trying to tell Wind to cut it off _now_.

Zelda looked at each member of the group with wide eyes before she turned to Wild, who looked like he’d rather be a puddle. “Did you-”

Wild shook his head and in one fluid motions he brought his hood above his head.

“Yeah,” Wind continued, eye’s narrowed mischievously, “at least that’s what War-hmoh.”

Warrior lunged forward and grabbed Wind by the mouth and locking him against his chest. “I’m sorry your majesty,” he said, his smile way to nervous, “kid hears things while traveling, gets terms mixed up. Grew up on an island, doesn’t know how to treat royalty-”

Wild let out muffled curses and struggled to get out of Warrior’s grasp while Zelda studied them for a moment longer. She cleared her throat and looked back down to the papers. “It’s alright. Anyway, I was wondering if any of you can read this?” She asked. She held out a small group of the papers and Warrior let go of Wind. Wind sat back down, looking satisfied.

Time reached out and took the papers. They were ancient and browned. The edges were torn and crinkled, the writing faded from years of being left alone.

“I don’t recognize it,” he said, looking at the characters. He passed it on, each Link saying they didn’t recognize the writing, until it ended up in Legends hands.

He flicked through the papers and looked at the faded characters for a minute before he looked up. “it’s a recipe of some kind,” he said, “looks like for a health potion.”

Zelda reached forward and grabbed the notes, flicking through them herself. “We’re rebuilding the lab,” she said quietly, “and we found hundreds of these papers. All notes and recipes I believe. It’s fascinating.” She looked up at the group, “if… before you leave, if you wouldn’t mind helping me translate some of the papers.”

Legend cleared his throat. “Of… of course.”

Zelda smiled brightly and then turned to Sky, “so tell me about Skyloft. Are the legends about it true?”

Sky nervously smiled and folded his hands together. “That depends on the legends you have heard…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment! They're my only source of food...
> 
> Thanks for reading!!!
> 
> (also sry for not putting something up yesterday, forgot... <3)


	7. Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Wild shows everyone his new house in Hateno Village. (bonus points for mentioning a specific picture you get from the DLC or headcanon that the house Wild bought was his former home he grew up in 100 years ago)” -anon

 

Wild puts his hand on the handle of his door as the rest of the heroes stand behind him in anticipation. They had just come from Kakariko, meeting Impa and taking a short rest there. Wild had mentioned his house practically as just a days walk away and next thing he knew they were at Hateno. Not that he minds, he has been wanting to visit home for quite awhile now.

“It’s probably a mess,” he says as he turns the knob and opens the door with a creek, “but it’s home.”

The door swings open, revealing his bottom floor and small hums and excited gasps sound behind him. Wild finds himself being pushed out of the way as Wind scrambles inside. “It’s so cute!” He says as he goes straight towards the dining table.

Wild walks inside after him and the rest are quickly right behind him.

“It's…” Twilight says, looking around the small house with wide and surprised eyes, and Wild knows exactly what he is trying to put into words. He’s sure that everybody has expected him to live in a cave, or have no organization what’s so ever. Twilight takes a few moments to think of his next word as the rest all spread out, looking at the weapon racks and decorations in interest. “It’s homey.”

“Thanks,” Wild mumbles. He walks further into the house and heads over to his little kitchen area. “There’s not much, but make yourself at home.”

Legend sighs and pulls out a chair, leaning back into it looking content. “Don’t mind if I do,” he says.

Warrior joins him soon after and begins to munch on the small bowl of nuts set in the middle of the table while Time, Twilight, and Sky admire Wild’s weapons that are hanging up. His special weapons he would never use for fear of breaking them.

The rest wonder around his house, looking at cupboards and shelves, which Wild doesn’t mind. He has nothing to hide from anyone except from the stuff he already has packed up with him. He slips off his jacket and throws it at an empty dining chair before he rolls up his sleeves and starts rummaging through cubbies and barrels to make a satisfactory homemade meal. He decides a good batch of soup and bread would be enough for their hungry group of travelers and he begins to gather the materials that he has safely stored away.

He’s just in the middle of rolling out bread dough when Wind calls for his attention. “Wild? Can I look upstairs?”

Wild turns around yet is careful of his hands, he doesn’t want to get flour everywhere, and sees Four and Wind both standing at the bottom of his staircase, looking up. He thinks for a moment that he should say no, his more precious stuff is up there and if any of it broke he knew he would get upset, but Wild also knew that Wild and Four are just curious and can be careful when it matters. They were restless from sitting and waiting for dinner (though the others apparently aren’t, Time is leaning back on a chair and snoring while Sky had rolled up Wild’s hood and is using it as a pillow, leaning against the table. Legend and Warrior where telling jokes back and forth towards each other while Hyrule threw in his own every so often. Twilight is sitting outside, whittling a chunk of wood down while have a conversation with Karson and Bolson).

He sighs, knowing that if he doesn’t give permission Wind and Four would probably sneak up there anyway. “Sure. Just don’t break anything.”

Wind makes an excited noise before he blasts up the stairs. Four at least had the decency to say: “Thanks! We won’t!” before he followed after.

Wild closes his eyes for a second to take a deep breath before he turns back to the bread and rolls or a few more times. His anxiety spikes every few seconds when he hears a drawer open or something shift above him—they are both very curious to see how Wild lives, aren’t they—but he soon gets back into the groove of preparing food.

Small chatter fills the dining room, masking the small snores of Time as he slept. A few minutes in, Hyrule stands up and stretches before he joins Twilight outside to talk with Bolson and Karson. Small giggles and sounds of interest came from upstairs, but other than that nothing really happens until Wild is placing a hot pot of soup and rolls onto the dining table.

It falls onto Legend to wake up Time and Sky and Warrior is tasked with grabbing Twilight and Hyrule. Wild looks up at the second floor and is about to call Wind and Four down, but then he hears a small whisper through the sounds of life around him.

“Do you think that’s Mipha?” Wind asks.

Wild swallows and fear rushes through his limbs. His most precious thing, they must be looking at that. He has forgotten that he had it up there. He wipes his hands on his pants and starts up the stairs towards the second floor.

The first thing he sees is Wind and Four sitting on his bed, one at the head and the other at the foot. They are leaning over sometime placed in the middle, fingers gently pointing at different spots and their voices in small and curious whispers. Wild looks at his wall and sees an empty place.

He takes a deep breath and steps closer. “What are you doing?” He asks.

Wind flinches and Four nearly jumps out of their skin and they both whip around to look at Wild with wide and guilty eyes.

“Um, we were just getting a better look-” Four starts to explain but cuts himself off when another voice chimes in.

“Is everything okay?” Twilight asks. Wild turns around and sees the rest of the group all standing at the top of the staircase into the small bedroom. Twilight’s eyebrows are drawn together as he studied the scene before him. Time has his arms folded across his chest, matching Twilight’s expression while the rest are trying to get a better look by poking over each others shoulders.

Wild returns his gaze over to his bed and he walks towards it slowly. Wind and Four both back away slowly as Wild leans down and picks up the frame, holding it gently in his hands, looking for anything wrong with it.

“What is that, Wild?” Sky asks as he steps forward, and Wild wants to answer, but his voice is choked up and his hands are busy. He shakes his head and walks over to its place. The others remain silent as he places the frame back onto the wall, and he’s thankful for their silence.

Finally he backs away and stares at the photo. Nobody speaks, and Wild realizes that that they are waiting for him to.

His hands come in front of him and he’s ready to explain, but he then remembers that only Time would be able to fully understand him, maybe Twilight if he uses simpler signs. He clears his throat, hoping to round up some courage, but the thought of speaking only makes his stomach churn.

“It’s-” he pauses when the sound of his own strangled voice reached his ears. He doesn’t want to talk. He really doesn’t, but he looks over at the others and sees their worried and patient faces and he knows that he owes it to them. They would let him stop, they would let him say _leave it,_ and they would. They deserve a little bit of an explanation.

“It's… my most… precious memory,” he says slowly. He hates how he croaks the words when just awhile ago he was fine with talking, his words clear and understandable. Now, they’re mumbled and stuck in his throat. He’ll be surprised if anyone understands him.

Recognition flashes in their eyes; Wild has told them about how he found his small stash of memories, each one is connected with an image, a picture. They must be realizing that the photo hanging on his wall was one of those pieces, one of his miniscule memories.

“Wild, I’m sorry,” Wind says as he stands up from the bed. He folds his arms around himself as his face contorts into shame and regret.

Wild finds himself shaking his head. “It's… okay,” he says slowly, and as he says it he realizes that it really is not. “It was a long time ago.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Hyrule asks. Twilight nods his head.

“We’re here for you, Wild,” Twilight says.

Wild looks and sees even Legend nodding his head in agreement. Warrior gives him a small smile.

He turns back to the photo, tracing each face with his eyes. He doesn’t know these people, well, he knows Zelda. But he hardly does the others. He just has stitched together puzzle pieces that can’t really be called remembering. He doesn’t know Mipha, only that she loved him and she was kind. He doesn’t know Ravali, only that his arrogance masked his loyalty. He doesn’t know Urbosa, only that she was strong and a mother figure to Zelda, and in a way to himself as well. He doesn’t know Daruk, only that he was brave and strong and never one for a frowning face. He… he doesn’t know Link, only that he was supposed to be a hero.

“It doesn’t matter,” Wild says.

“It clearly does,” Time speaks up.

Wild remains silent until suddenly he’s pushed into someone’s chest. His whole body stiffens but he finds himself relaxing as Twilight wraps his arms around Wild, holding him there, safe. Next thing Wild knows, Wind is squeezing in and so is Four. Time, Legend, Hyrule, Sky, Warrior… all of them join together into his small upstairs and gather in a group hug. Wild feels something in him burst and suddenly his shoulders are shaking uncontrollably and tears are streaming down his face. A hand runs through his hair and another pair tightens ever so slightly. He’s crying, because it hurts so much. It hurts trying to remember the faces of one hundred years ago, it hurts stumbling upon gaps that he can’t fill, it hurts feeling alone, it hurts to only know so little, _it hurts_ …

When he finally catches his breath, when his eyes are finally dry, Twilight breaks the group hug ever so slightly to look Wild face to face.

“It’s good to keep onto old memories,” he says, “but you need to make new ones too.”

Wild’s eyes wet ever so slightly, but Twilight doesn’t let the dam burst again. Instead, he takes Wild’s hand and begins to lead him down the stairs and across the floor to the door. The rest follow, the soup and rolls remain forgotten.

-o-o-o-o-

“Okay~ skooch in closer Legend~”

“I _am_ skooched in…” Legend mumbles but gets closer to Hyrule nonetheless.

Bolson rolls his eyes and Karson holds the Sheikah Slate in front of him as the group shifts again. Wild’s heart is pumping harder than what it has for a long time.

“Time, you look angry, smile for me honey!” Bolson yells put, placing his hands on his hips and grinning ever so slightly. Time sighs and smiles, his eyes screaming _is this enough_?

“Perfect! Now~ everybody say Bolson!”

“Bolson!”

 _Click_.

-o-o-o-o-

They take the slate to Purah and she makes enough copies for all of them. Wild hangs his up next to the Champion’s Picture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the input guys!!! Means a whole lot!!!! I love seeing you guys enjoying these old fics <3


	8. Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “If requests are still open for LinkedU fanfics I’d love to read smth like this: The links adventuring and all and suddenly Twilight turning into a wolf without knowing why and transforms back being in terrible (like TERRIBLE pain) and its all because the twilight realm reopens and monsters are there for a fight. And if you could include Midna that would be AMAZING … Thanks” @awesomeunicat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ANNNND 
> 
> another. :P

The group walks along the forest path in a companionable silence. They had changed worlds again and none of them knew where they were. The trees are large and full of green leaves and the sounds of the animals chatter around them. Not much help with distinguishing a location when every Hyrule had these traits.

Twilight yawns and looks around him, trying to spot some kind of landmark or anything that could clue in the group as to where they are. Yet there is nothing; only the endless expanse of forest.

The small path below them suddenly narrows and turns off in a seemingly random direction. They must be following an animal path, one trodden down by rabbits or deer over a long period of time. They’ll never find civilization this way.

“We’ll have to make camp soon,” Times says, his voice cuts through the silence. Twilight looks up to the sky and sees that the sun is indeed beginning to sink through the leaves of the trees, casting dark shadows over the forest ground.

If they knew what Hyrule they were in, they would be able to probably travel further, yet because they don’t know, there is no telling what kind of creatures are lurking behind the corner, waiting for the cover of dark to pounce.

The group answers Time with various grunts of acknowledgement and continue onwards until they stumble upon a clearing in the trees that’s wide enough to set up their bed rolls and a fire.

Wild sits in front of the campfire, cutting up rabbit meat, as Time sits down with Legend, Hyrule, and Sky to look at each other’s maps, pointing out different areas, theorizing where they could be. Twilight sighs and is about to join then before the world _pulses_.

Twilight stumbles and something horrible tears at his very bones, bringing out a strangled gasp of pain through his throat.

“Twilight?!” Wind calls, but it’s echoing and far away.

Twilights whole body radiates with a stinging agony, one that he hasn’t felt in a very long time. Fear claws its way through his chest and latches onto his heart as another pulse of sheer pain streams throughout his entire being. He feels himself falling but he can also feel his bones and muscles shifting unnaturally. Through his blurry gaze, he catches a very familiar design on the back of his hand glowing golden.

Strong hands wrap around his shoulders, attempting to steady him or something alike. The dark blue of Warrior’s scarf envelopes his vision and then blurs with the darkness creeping in at the corners of his eyes. He feels his fingers snap and his jaw shatter, shaping and morphing into something else. Something not human.

It’s not supposed to be painful, he thinks, and Twilight wants to scream that as Warrior lowers him gently to the ground. He hears worried voices as he loses feeling in his thumbs, shocked gasps as tufts of dark grey fur sprouts from his skin, but he’s in too much pain, too busy writhing as his body is shifting against his will, to try and search through the pain clouding his mind to understand what they’re saying or trying to do.

Another pulse of fire vibrates his very bones and he _howls_.

 _k_ ….

Everything goes so silent as his body shakes from it’s attack of pain. It’s taking all his strength to keep his eyes half lidded as hands gently grab through his fur, attempting to shake his canine shoulders and check if he’s okay. He smells Wild. He smells fear.

 _ink_ …

His ear flicks at the voice trying to speak to him. It’s different than the other panicked voices above him, this one seems to be directly speaking to him from inside his very skull.

 _Link_ …

His eyes close, a wine leaving his throat as well as any feeling or any sense of reality. Black fog coveres his vision and ice seems to replace his blood as his whole body goes numb with the coming unconsciousness.

 _Link… answer… it's… me_ ….

His lungs let out a puff of air as sleep takes him with a wash of calm. He must be hallucinating, yet it was still nice to hear her voice.

Black takes him as he thinks of her name.

-o-o-o-o-

“Link.”

He blinks and looks up to the blackness above him. For a second, he thinks his eyes are still closed until he brings his hands up to his face. He rubs his eyes and groans as he forces himself up so he’s sitting.

“How many times do I have to call your name, idiot?”

He startles and jumps to his feet. All around him is black, the space surrounding and the ground beneath almost seems like it just doesn’t exist. However, he can see himself just fine as he grabs the sword on his back and brings it out, searching for whatever had called out to him.

Something shifts in the darkness and it approaches him slowly yet elegantly. It’s dark like the space around him, and tall like a giant. “Where am I?” He demands, stepping backwards as the figure continues to approach.

Something catches his eyes, something orange like a sunset and red like pure determination. His breaths leaves his lungs. “W-who are you?”

“You’re such an idiot,” Midna says, smiling as she finally comes into view.

Link drops his sword and stumbles back like he had been stabbed. It certainly feels like it. The sight of her, standing tall, _in front of him_ hurts like someone dug a dagger straight through his heart.

“A dream,” he whispers.

She steps closer and he wants to back away, but he can’t, his feet are stuck in place. He can’t do anything but stare with wide eyes at her as she shakes her head and reaches up to caress his jaw. The touch vibrates through his entire body, tingling down his spine and numbing his toes.

“You’re not here,” he says, because she can’t be. She shattered the mirror and left. There is no way for her to be standing in front of him.

She smirks at him and lowers her hand. “I’m here, but… not for long.”

Before Link can say anything her face falls and she steps back. “The Twilight,” she says, “something has happened. A monster, it came and… and used evil magic to break the barriers again.”

“A monster?” Link finds himself asking even though it _has_ to be a dream.

She looks at him in the eyes. “It was you… or it looked like you.”

His blood goes cold and a chill shivers up his spine.

“But… It was black with glowing eyes full of _malice._ It attacked my tribe, my people, it turned them into dark creatures. With a simple spell, it tore open the barrier.”

Memories come flying back at him of his forced transformation and he almost loses his balance completely as he realizes what has happened. Midna continues on, studying him with her ever sharp eyes.

“The Twilight is reopened,” she says, confirming his biggest dream and his worst fears.

The darkness around him begins to brighten to gray and Midna fades with it. Panic flares inside his chest because _this_ _is too early, she can’t go yet, what is he supposed to do?!_

“You’re so stupid,” she says, smirking at what must be his scared face, “I’ll find you. Until then, you have people you need to protect, Hero of Twilight.”

The world flashes white.

-o-o-o-o-

His eyes open to the sound of battle. There’s the running of feet and the gluttal growls of dark monsters he hasn’t encountered for such a long time. There is yelling and clashing of swords but there is also… panic.

He pushes himself up to his paws and shakes his head, fighting off waves dizziness. It’s night, made so much more impossibly darker by the other world leaking into his own. He’s alone, he notices with a start. He turns his head around, breathing deeply and searching with sharp animal eyes for any signs of his friends. His ears twitching and his nose is flaring with his deep breaths of air.

There’s noises all around him, he can’t tell which direction to go, but thankfully a scent stands out to him.

It’s dirty, yet full of life. It smells like like fresh air and stormy weather mixed in with the smell of grass and wildflowers.

He sprints off in the direction.

Leaves and bushes whack at his flank as he runs, but his thick fur and skin keep him protected as he pushes himself harder. He can hear heavy breathing, panicked breaths coming out in short bursts. The smell of blood mixes with Wild’s scent.

He bursts through the trees and snarls at the black creature that’s crawling forward. Wild in in front of it, holding a sword in front of him with one hand while the other lays limp at his side, dripping blood from his fingertips. He’s breathing hard and his eyes are wide as he snaps his neck towards Twilight. Red is running down the side of his face.

The monster screeches and Wild flinches, Twilight growls and runs towards the creature with an animalistic fury before it could attack. He jumps on its body and buries his teeth deep in it’s throat. He can feel it’s high pitched scream run past his teeth but he digs further until it still and falls down to the ground: dead.

Growling, he unlocks his jaw and backs up and spits black ooze from his mouth. He memorizes the scent, the scent he had long past forgotten, and then turns back towards Wild who is tying a strip of cloth from his garments around a gruesome gash in his arm.

Twilight steps up towards him and he tries to return to his human form, but just like so long ago he’s stuck in the wolf form until he leaves the Twilight. Instead, he nudges his head against Wild’s leg. Wild looks down at him.

“Can’t fight them,” he says, breathing hard. His hand goes down and combs through Twilight’s muzzle, seeking comfort. “Goes right through.”

Twilight understands instantly. Beings of the Light cannot interact with the Twili, but the Twili can definitely interact with them.

His heart beats fearfully at the thought of the others all facing the same creatures, not able to make a scratch but vulnerable to take damage. Not even Time would last long.

He lifts his snout into the air and sucks in a deep lungful. He can instantly tell there are four other creatures of Twilight hiding around. The world around him goes dark as black smoking trails seem to appear out of thin air, heading out in multiple, random directions.

He nods his head at Wild and begins to pad forward. Wild follows. Twilight keeps his eyes on the black smoke and begins to speed up when noises of battle hits his sensitive ears. He breaks into a sprint with Wild expertly chasing behind him, like he’s chased after a wolf before.

He crashes through the undergrowth and comes across Four and Sky attempting to fight their own monster. Sky swings the Master Sword, but even that does nothing more but pass right through the monster. Before Sky could back away, the creature swings out it’s clawed arm and scratches Sky right across his chest. Twilight howls in anger and kicks his hind legs back, snarling as his jaws locks around the jugular of the creature.

An evil may have reopened the Twilight, released a chaos upon the world, but there is no way he will let it win. He’s not going to let it take his family, his world, away from him.

Not again.

He won’t lose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are fantastic with the comments and support!!!!!! Thank you!!!!!!!


	9. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: They think Wild had no one on his adventures, but they were wrong. Wild had a very special friend. He had a wolf.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guys liked the last chapter, you'll love this one!

Link wakes up alone. It’s suffocating and he wonders how the emptiness of the room around him could make him so claustrophobic. There’s a girl in his head, telling him his name and what he must do, but that is all he has. His body seems to move on it’s own as he stands from the chamber and does as the voice tells him. He seamlessly walks and moves and opens chests without a single memory of him doing it before. He slips on his shirt and pants and walks out into the world he has never seen before but it all feels so familiar.

Like home.

An old man talks with him and he finds he knows how to talk too, though in a different way. The man speaks and Link lifts his hands and signs without thinking about it. The old man understands instantly and continues on like normal. Link then has an apple, and then he moves on towards the point marked on his slate, fighting strange creatures along the way.

And then his adventures begin.

It all goes by quickly, he journeys into the shrines and comes out a bit stronger easily. He gains new weapons, shields, and even a new tunic meant for the cold weather. He does it all without speaking a word, without single person offering to help besides the old man who has promised him a paraglider.

Eventually, he finishes everything, he learns the real identity of the old man and he discovers his own role into this world he was brought into one hundred years late. He gets his paraglider, ready to begin his journey to Kakariko Village to meet with a woman called Impa.

He remembers, all that time ago, how he stood at the edge of the great plateau, looking at the great horizon, the castle, the volcano, the rivers, the sky, everything and thinking he was responsible to bring justice to the entire land. He remembers jumping off the cliffs and gliding down towards the ground.

He remembers still being incredibly alone.

-o-o-o-o-

He’s on his way towards Kakariko Village. The horse he rides neighs happily as he pats her neck. He has just caught her and registered her in the stable. He named her Epona, though he doesn’t know why. He’s never heard that name before but it sounded right, sounded like the correct name to gift to the strong, chestnut mare.

The forest passes slowly besides him. The weather is cool and the sky is clear. He rubs his stomach, thinking about how filling his last meal was and what he’ll have to gather to make the same dish later. He also needs to find apples to give to Epona and find a nice river for water. He let’s go of Epona’s reigns for a second to glance at the Sheikah Slate. It’s mostly black except for the small area he was in. Kakariko Village is just a days ride away, he can get there by the next evening if he pushes Epona a bit harder.

A little notification pops up suddenly at the bottom left of his screen. His eyebrows come together and he looks up at the sky, noticing how the puffy white clouds are slowly but surely turning a dark grey. It is to rain soon. That will slow him down.

He sighs and looks around him, there’s cliffs to his side and depending on the wind he can make a comfortable shelter there to avoid getting wet in the incoming storm. The first rain drops begin to fall, making Epona shake her mane in discomfort when they land on her nose. He lets out a half amused snort and jumps off as more rain begins to fall. He guides her over to the cliff and sits back. He has some wood and some flint, he can make a fire and maybe just sleep the storm off. His stomach grumbles and it’s Epona’s turn to made an amused snort. He glares at her, signing that he’s going to eat her apples, and she seems to either understand the threat or just not care about it because all she does is roll her eyes and bend down to nibble on the grass.

Link is lucky, the wind was blowing in such a way that his little spot by the cliff is completely dry as he sets up the fire. He pulls out some fox meat and begins to roast it with an old Bokoblins Spear as the sky darkens with the clouds and the setting sun. He wishes he had a bowl so he could add seasoning to the meat, but for now he’ll have to settle. Beggars can’t be choosers.

He pulls out a small bag of apples and stands to give Epona some food. She eats the fruits out of his hands with content whinnies and soft hooves kicking at the ground. The smell of meat overcomes the smell of rain around the time Epona is satisfied with her meal. He grabs an apple for himself and is about to sit down and check the meat when suddenly a branch snaps in the darkness.

With no hesitation, he grabs the sword at his back and holds it out in front of him. He glares at the shadows, searching for movement in the darkness. Epona makes a nervous huff through her nose.

The only thing he sees is what is illuminated by the orange glow of fire, so he attempts to go by sound. That turns up fruitless when the only noises that meet his ears is the patter of rain and the crackle of fire.

He’s about to chalk it up to be his imagination when another snapping twig catches his attention, making his ears twitch. He spins around, senses on high alert, towards where the noise comes from and his breath catches in his throat when he sees a creature too big to be a fox, yet too small to be a bear. It’s form is cloaked in darkness, from it’s dark fur and from the shadows it’s hiding in, yet he can see it resembles more of a dog from the stables; however, he knew this isn’t a dog, this is something wilder.

He shifts and it’s eyes flash with the light of the fire. He can hear it panting through it’s large snout. It lifts a giant paw and steps forward and Link growls at it, lifting his sword ever higher. Epona stomps her hooves nervously behind him. It stops and blinks, tilting its head as if to say “what are you doing that for?” before it lets out a small whine. It’s eyes travel down to the hand that isn’t holding the sword, but the apple. It blinks as it’s gaze traveled to the fire behind Link, where the fox is still roasting.

Link swallows and thinks maybe the creature is just hungry. He looks down at his apple and throws it a few feet away. The animal makes an excited bark and chases after the apple, biting into it with enthusiasm.

With his now free hand, he moves it to his chest and moves his fingers up and down. _Hungry_?

The creature finishes the apple with gusto and begins to pad towards Link. Epona makes a scared whinny and Link plants his feet into the ground, trying to look threatening. Yet, the creature seems to roll its eyes as it walks straight at him. Link knows he should attack the creature. It’s teeth are sharp and it’s big enough to maybe make a horse it’s prey, but something stops him from doing so; maybe it’s eyes that are much too wise to belong to any creature, or maybe it’s the almost familiar personality of it. He doesn’t know. All he knows is that he’s completely still as the creature fully reveals itself in the light of the fire and bumps it’s head against Links leg affectionately.

It’s fur is as black as twilight, or most of it is. It has a green mane and tail and he finds as it turns over onto its back, yapping at him, that it has a white underbelly. It’s fur is decorated with beautiful white designs that look almost painted on, too unnatural to be it’s natural fur.

Link doesn’t think before he let’s the sword down and kneels down next to the creature. He slowly puts his hand down on it’s belly and rubs the soft fur. It whines with content and wiggles closer so Link is petting it with both his hands, a smile tearing at his face.

He instantly adopts this strange creature as apart of his terribly small family, because there is something about it that says “you’re not alone anymore, cub.”

-o-o-o-o-

It’s a wolf, Link discovers later. And a “he”. The word comes to him randomly just like the sign, a clawing motion at his face. Link doesn’t have a name for the wolf that intends to travel with him, but the wolf doesn’t seem to mind. Link soon finds himself calling the creature what it is; Wolf.

Wolf travels everywhere with Link, even the places where Epona cannot follow. Epona at first didn’t like to watch Link and Wolf go off on their own, but soon she too was melting for the gentle creature, enough so to share her apples with him when it came time to eat.

Wolf sits and watches as Link lifts his sword and practices against a tree, sometimes he seems to want to join in whenever Link stumbles or makes a wrong move. Yet he doesn’t, he just growls like he was telling him to do it again. Wolf taught Link how to hunt, using the wind to his advantage. He sat with Link and let him cry against his fur whenever a nightmare he couldn’t remember wakes him up, he seems to know exactly how to curl around Link at those nights to make him feel safe. He fights with Link, making sure every Bokoblin or Moblin are dead on the ground before he allows Link to pillage. He sits by Link when he finds a place where his memories lay, and it comforts him with a head against Links hand when the memory is too much.

It falls into a beautiful pattern and Link doesn’t remember the loneliness he had felt back when he first woke up. He has Wolf, and Wolf will never leave him except for the times he knows Link must go in alone. Yet he will sit and wait patiently for Link to leave the Divine Beasts or the shrines and jump at him, licking his face, when Link does return victorious.

Link didn’t think that would ever change, not even after so many months. Not even as he stands at the castle gates, ready to fulfill his destiny with the Master Sword in hand. Yet, he stands there now and Wolf has a sad look in his eyes, saying the Link has to go in alone. Saying that they will never meet again.

Link can’t stop the tears from falling from his eyes as Wolf looks up at him sadly, as if saying goodbye. He bends down and rubs Wolf’s ears with one hand and wipes at his eyes with the other. Wolf whines and stands up, he walks over and presses his whole body against Links legs as his own little goodbye. His own hug.

Link knows it’s time to go, and he turns before he could hesitate. Zelda has waited long enough, she doesn’t deserve to be kept waiting longer just because Link couldn’t handle a goodbye with a wolf. He walks and opens the gates with his slate and he’s a few steps in when he turns one last time. Wolf is sitting proudly, staring at him with his wise eyes as he begins to materialize into the air in the form of black particles. In moments, Wolf is gone, back to wherever he came from.

Link is alone.

-o-o-o-o-

Link doesn’t trust the people in front of him. He doesn’t trust most anyone but he has learned the faces of his world, and he has never seen these ones before.

They’re all shades of blond with various lengths of pointed ears, but each look almost the same, like someone had taken a painting and repainted it in their own style in a multitude of times.

“You’re name is Link?” One asked, he was taller than most in their group, yet not the tallest. He seemed the most stocky, yet Link can tell that it isn’t fat on his body, but muscles. A white cloth stuck out from the rest of his garments, wrapped around his neck like a cape. “You can call me, Sky-”

“What do you want?” Link demanded, his voice raw and scratchy. It’s been a year since the fall of Calamity Ganon and Zelda has been helping him with his speech, but he’s still not very good at it. He prefers to sign, but that’s hard to do when you’re pointing a bow armed with multiple arrows at a group of people.

The wind blows lazily in Hyrule Field as the group of strangers looked at each other, trying to come up with some sort of explanation.

“You’re Hylia’s chosen hero, yeah?” Another asks, a blue scarf wraps around his neck. “That’s the Master Sword?”

Link had only heard so much about Hylia, he mostly just knew of her from his small prayers to get more strength at the statues. He doesn’t know what they mean by being her chosen hero, but he does wield the Master Sword. The comment on his sword makes him get into an even more defensive stance, people commenting on his hero status and his sword usually end up being Yiga.

“You have five seconds to surrender, traitors,” Link growls as he pulls his bow string further back. The group tenses and reach for their own weapons, though none is drawn. “Before I destroy you all.”

The oldest one steps forward suddenly and Link let’s an arrow fly, landing right at the feet of the man. He doesn’t even flinch. “Listen, you are part of an ever turning cycle of heroes. Surely you have heard of past… incarnations of chosen heroes.”

Link steps back and reloads his bow. He has heard of that, mostly just stories and fairy tales. The sword alone is proof enough of past heroes. “Why?” He asks.

“Because, something is happening,” another voice adds, this one looks older than most the group. His hair is dark compared to the rest and he looks like he grew up in a tribe instead of a city. There are strange markings on his face. “Something is bringing us all together, Link. We’re all… heroes. All of us are Link.”

Link studies the stranger. He looks sincere, genuine. Yiga Clan members usually give up after a few sentences at keeping a disguise. None would keep up the facade this long. Link’s eyes travel up and rests on the person’s face. His eyes… they’re familiar.

Something flashes in the back of his mind, a small creature he hasn’t seen for such a long time. Eyes, so wise and kind. The marking on the wolf’s forehead… are the same as the man before him.

Wild stumbles back as if he’s been shot by an arrow. The bow drops from his hand as he recognizes the stranger… the _friend_ in front of him.

Before he can even think of it, his hand goes up to his face and goes outward as if creating a long snout. Wolf… a human version of him… looks at him with confusion but seems to relax since Link has dropped his bow.

The others smile and relax too, thinking that they had succeeded at convincing Link, but he had his eyes trained on Wolf… on-

“I’m Twilight, by the way,” Twilight says, stepping forward and holding out his hand hesitantly.

And it’s at that moment, that Wild knows he will never be alone again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be sure to comment! They're my life source, I'll Thanos away without them!


	10. Speak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As time passes, things change. The language does as well, and that causes some problems when they meet the new hero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the few days wait! Still got a whole bunch of these to go :)

The new one did not speak their language. Any of theirs. Each of them has tried and failed to speak to him, but with every word the hero gets more agitated, making him stiffen his posture and steady his bow. The hero snarls out something, yet no one understands him.

Time can’t help but feel resentment towards Hylia for making a damn language barrier.

“What do we do?” Wind asks. His voice is slow and unsure, they have all decided that Twilight’s Hylian is the easiest for each of them to understand, so they have each learned it. It’s easier for some compared to others.

“We need… explain,” Sky mumbles, tripping over his words. His language was furthest from all of theirs, he could understand Four and somewhat of Time, but speaking Twilight’s tongue is like a whole new language for him. He hasn’t complained about it yet though. “Him need understand.”

Time nods and looks back at the hero who is watching them with sharp and fearful eyes. They’ve met in the worst way possible.

They caught sight of the hero about a week ago as he was hunting. They were all confused and thrown off from being dropped into another Hyrule, especially one where everything was in ruins. Buildings were brought to the ground, tied down with vines, weeds, and grass. Wild flowers sprung up out from destroyed merchant carts and foxes made their homes inside toppled over homes and dried up wells. However when they saw the young man creeping through the forest, they all knew he was a hero. His face was scarred up and his hair was long and housing small twigs and leaves, his clothes had grass and dirt stains, he looked like he hadn’t known the comfort of a stable home in his entire life.

Yet, by the way he moved, the way his fingers nimbly and expertly knocked the arrow, how his poise was perfect and his timing impeccable, they were made certain that Hylia had chosen a hero for this world covered with a destroyed past. Now they just had to meet him.

Easier said than done, they’ve had bad experiences meeting heroes before. Some accepted their meeting immediately, like Wind, Sky, Hyrule, Time. Yet others would rather swing their sword first and ask questions later, Twilight, Legend, Warrior, Four. They had no clue what this new hero would do if they emerged from the bushes, spouting about Hylia and converging worlds. By the looks of it, he wouldn’t react well.

So they followed him, waiting for the perfect opportunity to introduce themselves. They watched as he traveled the rather large land, as he made stops at little stables, as he greeted travelers with a grin but frowned when they were gone.

When he spoke, he spoke quietly, and they were always too far of a distance to hear what he says.

It was a week into their following and everyone was getting antsy. The hero liked to travel randomly, during the night or at the break of dawn, everyone was exhausted. They were just about to say _screw_ _it_ when laughter suddenly broke through the air. They watched as the hero instantly tensed up and pulled out the master sword, snarling at a spot hovering in the air that was beginning to glow orange as a tornado of paper turned into the form of a man.

Then more showed up. The hero had walked into an ambush.

Twilight almost ran forward, as did a couple others, but Time held them back as the hero jumped into battle and fought furiously against these attackers. He didn’t need help.

The battle lasted only a few minutes. The hero was panting in the middle of the trees as injured and possibly dead attackers laid on the ground. Blood dripped from the sword and splattered his face. Only a few of the assassins had gotten away.

The group was in awe, so much so that Hyrule didn’t notice the twig on the ground when he took a step backwards.

And here they are now.

Time doesn’t know if the reason the hero is hostile towards them is because he thinks they are back up of the assassins or if he is suspicious of them because they had stood there and watched the battle. Whatever the case, he is angry and pointing a bow nocked with multiple arrows right at them.

He growls something at them and they are all thrown off the loop when _none_ of them could understand what he said. They try to speak to him, but that makes him even more suspicious of them. It becomes a stand off between nine heroes who cannot understand each other.

Times notices that Legend drops his hand to his hip here he has his sword resting. He glares at him and he returns it. “I’m not going to let him attack us and not defend myself,” he says.

The hero snarls and takes a threatening step forward and Legend whips out his sword, sneering.

“Legend,” Time scolds and steps in front of Legend’s blade, but the damage has already been done. The hero let’s an arrow fly, just barely nicking Times cheek and lodging in the oak tree behind them.

He yells something, it sounds threatening and he looks like he’s just managing to hold back fear and confusion. In the blinking on an eye, he reloads his bow and aims it straight Time’s chest. Again, he speaks, and Time gets the feeling he was promising he won’t miss the next time.

He can hear Twilight nervously shifting behind him. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Warrior slowly reach for his shield. If they don’t diffuse the situation, and soon, the new hero will initiate a battle.

He does the only thing he can think of. He slowly brings his hands in front of him, unarmed and open palmed to show he means no harm. The hero glares at his hands but doesn’t make any offensive move which Time considers a step forward.

“What are you doing?” Four asks behind him, but Time ignores that and closes half of one of his hand, leaving the pointer finger and thumb sticking out.

_L._

He shifts his hand so he’s making a fist except his pinky is now up.

 _I_.

Now he closes his whole hand and the hero is watching it with wide, surprised eyes. He moves his thumb so it’s sticking out between his middle and ring finger.

 _N_.

Everyone is silent in anticipation as moves his middle and pointer fingers so they’re making a V, then he puts the tip of his thumb against the base of his middle.

 _K_.

He moves his hands so they’re relaxed again as the hero watches them for a few seconds. He lowers his bow, though in no way does he look defenseless, as he nods his head slowly.

Encouraged, Time brings his hands into more complicated movements and the hero watches them earnestly, seemingly more at ease now that he can understand.

 _You know sign_? Time’s hands ask.

The hero nods his head again and Time thanks the lucky stars that out of everything to change over time, the language of hands hasn’t.

 _We are not here to fight_ , he explains.

The hero slowly puts his bow against his back and brings his own hands out in front of him. There’s a surprised gasp behind him as the group realizes what is happening. None of them knew sign, only Time does. Yet it seems there is now another who has trouble speaking.

 _Who are you?_ The hero asks. His hands form into simple letters, spelling out _Y-I-G-A_ , Time doesn’t understand what that means until he looks down and sees the defeated attackers still on the ground. He quickly shakes his head.

 _Friends_ , he replies, _we’re like you. Heroes. Please, we do not want to fight. We want to talk, that’s all._

The hero stares at him before he shrugs and signs a quick _O-K._ Time feels tension rush out of his shoulders as the hero slowly begins to walk towards them.

“What’s happening,” Twilight asks as the hero approaches.

“He will talk with us,” Time says, smiling.

As it turns out, the hero, Wild as the sword has dubbed him, is from a world many centuries in the future, which is why his Hylian is completely different from the rest of the groups. As time passes, he learns Twilight’s language, and he becomes a very close friend.

He bonds with Sky over the difficulty of language, he becomes friends with Wind who both love mischief, he teaches Hyrule how to cook, he has friendly duels with Warrior. With Legend he shows how to load multiple arrows onto a bow, with Four he has very nice conversations with. Twilight becomes his best friend and mentor.

With Time, he always sits down and forgets about speech. They talk secretly to each other with their hands and fingers, something they both have very much in common.

He quickly becomes the heart of the family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments! You all are so kind and I really appreciate it since these are all my older things! Hope you guys liked this one <3


	11. Feast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wild is always eating something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my greatest regret. people on tumblr like to tease me by liking this one a whole lot. over 300 notes and it's rediculous. this one is rediculous. im sorry.

No one notices at first. It was a simple thing, something that didn’t call attention to itself. Like how Sky rubs the back of his neck when he’s nervous or how Four is always tapping his fingers on something. It was inconspicuous, something that went ignored until it was _mentioned_. Now, everyone is painfully aware of it.

Wild has a habit.

He’s always eating something.

Whether it’s a handful of berries he’s snacking on while Time is doing his hair or fish rice-balls he’s stuffing in his mouth before he swings his sword at an enemy. There’s always something edible in his hands, an apple, a steak, a whole cooked bird, or a fruit cake. During conversations he’s always standing there, speaking through bites and nibbles like it’s the most normal thing in the world.

Hyrule was the first to find out, and now no one can unnotice it. The funny thing was? Wild hasn’t even realized he does it yet.

-o-o-o-o-

Hyrule is trying to have a conversation with Wild when he notices. They are in the middle of talking about the different kinds of plants in Wild’s Hyrule when his eyes catch on Wild stuffing a bite of carrot cake into his mouth after saying his bit about Silent Princess.

“Where did you get that?” Hyrule asks. It is already mostly eaten and he hasn’t even realized that Wild was snacking on it. Wild gives him a confused look and swallows before he looks down at his hands.

His eyebrows rise as he looks at the cake. “I don’t know,” he says quietly. Hyrule doesn’t have a chance to question that answer before Wild shrugs and stuffs the rest into his mouth.

He swallows and folds his arms across his chest. He then continues the conversation like normal, like nothing even happened.

Hyrule watches in awe as Wild almost robotically reaches into his traveling back and pulls out a pouch of nuts as he still speaks.

After that conversation, Hyrule is suddenly hyper aware of every single time Wild has some sort of food in his hands. And it’s _all the time_. He wonders where all the food goes. Wild doesn’t seem to be gaining any weight…

-o-o-o-o-

Wind is the next to take notice of it. He wishes he hasn’t noticed it, because now it’s the only thing he can look at while they travel. Even when Wild is cooking he’s munching on something. It’s horrible, it throws off his concentration and takes over his thoughts.

He doesn’t even know how he found out. It just occurred to him randomly when he was helping Wild clean up dishes after their dinner. He was biting into a mango with one hand and drying a dish with the other and Wind just thought “huh, he’s always eating something.”

And now it’s stuck in his head. He cannot stop thinking about it because _he’s always eating something and no one comments on it_.

Even now, Wind is sitting on a fallen over log as the group are taking a short pause in their traveling and Wild is across the clearing, biting into an apple mindlessly.

“Where did he even get that?” Wind asks quietly to himself.

Hyrule, who was walking past him at the time, stops in his tracks and looks down at Wind with wide eyes. “You see it too,” he breathes.

Wind is so thankful someone else has noticed that he feels like he’s going to cry. Instead, he nods his head and Hyrule slumps down onto the log next to him.

“I thought I was going insane,” he says. Wild is working on a new apple at this point.

“Has he always done this?!” Wind asks.

“Done what?” Twilight asks from where he’s sitting on the ground, getting dirt out from his boots.

-o-o-o-o-

Naturally, Twilight the the third to know. He wishes he didn’t ask. Because this knowledge? It’s terrible.

He thought he knew his prodégé inside and out, how could he not notice that Wild always has some sort of food with him? How has it gone on for so long with no one noticing?

 _Hyrule and Wind shouldn’t have told him_ , Twilight thinks as he’s watching Wild practice swordplay before they call it a night. He’s executing perfect technique while biting into a drumstick at the same time, and Twilight _hates_ it. He’s never going to be able to unsee it.

Curse Wind and Hyrule. They should have kept this horrible knowledge to themselves.

Speak of the devil, they both suddenly walk up to Twilight and he wants to snarl at them to go away. They have ruined his entire life.

“Hey,” Hyrule says.

“He’s doing it still,” Wind says.

Twilight rolls his eyes. “I can see that.”

It’s silent for a few seconds before Hyrule speaks up. “We’re going to tell Legend.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“… Good reason.”

-o-o-o-o-

Legend wants to die. A few minutes ago, he was completely fine, enjoying himself even. He was happily setting up his bed spread when Twilight, Wind, and Hyrule all walked up to him.

“What do you want?” He asks.

“Did you know…” Twilight starts. He’s grinning. Legend doesn’t like that grin. He sits down next to Legend and Legend gets the feeling he should run. “That Wild is always eating something?”

“What?” Legend asks.

Wind chuckles and points over to where Wild is practicing with his sword. Legend sees nothing wrong with it until he notices Wild take a bite of a drumstick and continue as normal without breaking pattern.

It all comes rushing to him, so quickly he feels dizzy.

“No…” he whispers, because they’re right. Wild is always eating… and he hasn’t noticed at all until now. He looks up towards the three horrible people besides him. “Why would you tell me this?”

Hyrule shrugs and he, along with Wind, join Legend on the ground to watch Wild stuff himself with cucoo.

-o-o-o-o-

Four finds out on his own. It was gradual, slow, so slow he didn’t even realize that he _knew_ until he spoke out loud to Twilight while they traveled.

“You even notice how Wild is, like, always eating?” He asks.

Twilight stops in his tracks and looks down at Four with impossibly tired eyes. “Yes,” he whispers like the very fact of Wild always eating has taken twenty years of his life.

Four looks back at Wild who stuffing berries into his mouth from the bushes as they walk past. The ones before him are full, the ones behind are bare.

Then, Four suddenly understands why Twilight looks like it’s an evil thing.

“Shit,” Four says.

-o-o-o-o-

Warrior also finds out on his own. He’ll later argue that he has the worst finding out story and no one is inclined to argue with him.

It is during a battle. An ambush. They are just walking down the forest path when the sounds of screeching monsters reach their ears. Every hero whip out their swords as the first Moblin barges through the trees. More follow along with multiple Bokoblins close behind, all holding wooden weapons but looking mighty threatening with them.

They run into battle.

Warrior swings his sword and takes out two Bokoblins at the same time and turns to fight the next one, but he pauses when he noticed Wild take a bite from a kabob and then run a Moblin through with his sword.

“What the-” he starts to say, but he is cut off by another monster as it swings it’s spear around like a bat. He ducks and rolls out of the way and falls back into the pattern of fighting, yet he can’t keep his eyes from traveling back to Wild as he continues to munch on his kabob.

Then, at the very end of the battle, Wild’s sword breaks. Warrior is about to run through the monsters towards him so he can protect him, but Wild only shrugs and _stabs_ the monster in front of him with his kabob stick.

He proceeds to fight another monster with an empty stick in one hand and a new one somehow filled with food in the other.

Warrior feels like he’s going to faint.

-o-o-o-o-

Sky is confused. Most of the group has some sort of secret that they’re not telling him. Time seems to not be a part of their loop, and neither does Wild, but neither of them seem to care about being left out.

Sky cares. He wants to know what they talk about every night when they gather and shoot looks at the members not apart of their secret conversations.

A few days pass, and he’s has enough.

He pushes himself off from his sitting place and marches over to the group. Legend looks up at him and desperately shakes his head, mouthing the word _run_ , and that makes Sky hesitate ever so slightly, but his curiosity wins over and he sits down next to Wind.

“What are you talking about?” He demands.

Twilight glances at Hyrule and Four gives Sky a _don’t do this to yourself_ look, but Sky gives then his most determined face. He won’t leave until he knows what’s going on.

Twilight sighs. “Fine,” he says, sounding defeated. “We’ll tell you.”

“Sky,” Four says softly, “have you ever noticed… that Wild is always eating?”

Sky looks at them like they’re crazy, yet every single one of them have very serious looks on their face. He doesn’t get why they were acting like it was forbidden knowledge. What’s so bad about that?

“I guess not,” he says. He looks behind him and sees that Wild is digging into a bowl of soup that he hasn’t noticed before. Time is sitting besides him, completely oblivious. “That’s interesting.”

The next day, Sky doesn’t think it’s interesting. Wild is _always_ eating and it’s absolutely horrifying. He cries that night, with his hands covering his ears and his eyes screwed shut.

“Make it stop,” he whimpers.

“We tried to earn you, buddy,” Warrior says as Wind rubs Sky’s back.

“Please… Make it stop…”

“There, there…”

-o-o-o-o-

Okay, now Time is curious. Whatever is being talked about every night is becoming too much of an issue. It’s clouding their minds and making them sloppy in battle. They are always looking at Wild with sadness and at Time with sympathy and he’s had it up to here with that.

So, after a particularly disastrous battle against a hoard of Lizalfos, he sits each of them down and folds his arms across his chest. “What is going on?” He demands.

Wind shifts nervously in their seat and Legend shoots Wild a glare. Wild looks confused by the action.

“It’s nothing,” Twilight says, “nothing is going on.”

Time narrows his eye. What a load of bull. He turns to Sky, who is looking like he’d rather be the dirt at the moment. “Sky.”

“That’s low, Time,” Four hisses but Time ignores him and steps closer to Sky.

“Sky, what’s going on?”

Sky, not being able to last very long under Times judgmental eye, breaks just like he plans.

“Wild is always eating!”

Time is taken aback with surprise as Wild lets out a muffled “What?”

Time looks over at Wild who has half a roll in his mouth.

Come to think of it… Wild is always eating.

“We tried to save you,” Hyrule whispers as they look at Wild with barely restrained fear.

Time watches as Wild slowly chews up his roll and swallows, and it clicks. Time instantly regrets asking them. He should have let himself remain oblivious.

“I don’t eat _all_ the time,” Wild says as he begins to take a bite of the rest of his roll.

Time watches likes he’s watching the moon fall all over again.

Out of all of them, Wild is now the only one who _doesn’t know_.

Oh Hylia, have mercy on them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry


	12. Shadow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wild finds himself lost and alone, or what he thinks is alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was an April fool's attempt at horror. Idk. I honestly don't remember much about this one.
> 
> Warnings: blood, death, dark themes, general Jin stuff

* * *

It is dark, foggy. There is no noise, nothing to see besides the dead trees around him as he walks alone.

Wild swallows and takes a step forward.

What has he been doing last? He can’t recall, and that sends a knife of fear through his heart. All he knows is that he’s alone in some dark version of the Kokiri forest, completely by himself.

“Time?” He calls out and nothing besides his own echoing voice answers him. He spins his head around and tries to see through the ever thickening fog, but it’s hopeless.

He takes a deep breath and reflexively reached towards his back for his sword, but there’s nothing there. His back is bare, his hands don’t meet anything besides his hood that hangs loosely down. He looks down at his hip and has to fight down panic when he sees nothing there either. There’s no Sheikah Slate, there’s no supply bag, there’s no weapons.

“Twilight?” He calls, just a tad bit more desperately. The silence is deafening and everything is looking the same: the trees, the grass, the bushes.

He sucks in a lungful of air. His pace quickens. He just has to go straight, then maybe he’ll run into something. Maybe he’ll find the group. Maybe-

His breathing hard as he’s now sprinting. Trees whip past his face but nothing is changing, he’s alone, he’s alone, there’s no one. There’s nothing. There’s-

He gasps as his foot catches on something in the long grass. He feels his ankle twists painfully as he goes down and he lets out a strangled cry. His elbows scrape the ground as he tries to catch himself.

His ankle is pulsing with pain but he forces himself up to a sitting position to see what he has tripped over.

It’s dark, almost blending into the almost purple grass. It isn’t moving, but it’s definitely different. A feeling that makes him want to vomit over takes him as he slowly approaches the item with his hand. He swallows and moves the grass away, and immediately whips his hand back as glowing red eyes meet his.

A wolf.

The creature snarls and pushes itself up from the grass and Wild scrambles backwards. It’s huge and it’s completely black except for the familiar white and diamond shaped fur on its forehead.

“Twilight?” He chokes.

The wolf responds with a savage growl as it’s takes a threatening step towards him. Wild runs one of his hands frantically on the ground until he finds something hard and sturdy. _This isn’t Twilight_ , he thinks as he launches the rock right at the wolf’s face.

The wolf disappears into black smoke, floating into the air.

It’s gone.

He takes a gasping breath and looks around him, trying not to panic. Something weird is going on and he can’t figure it out. His ankle twinges with pain and he looks down at it. He hisses when he pulls up the leg of his pants and sees his ankle already swelling. He pokes at it, grinding his teeth, and he finds that it isn’t broken, just badly strained.

He locks his jaw and begins to slowly lift himself up so he’s standing. His wound is screaming at him but he’s been through worse, he can ignore this. He swallows and takes a step forward, limping violently when his wounded leg hits the ground, but he continues onward.

He barely takes three steps before something growls behind him.

His heart in his throat, Wild turns around just in time to grab the wolf jumping at him around the muzzle. He falls backwards hard and the wolf is now on top of him, snarling and dripping saliva onto Wild’s face as it snaps its jaws at him. It takes all of Wild’s strength to hold it’s face but his arms are shaking with effort and his fingers are just managing to not slip on the fur.

He looks into the face of the wolf, looks at the diamond design on it’s head and how it’s red eyes seems to have turned blue. It’s Twilight… there’s no one else that can look like this wolf.

He lets out a panicked gasp as his hands slip just enough for Twilight—it can’t be Twilight, it can’t be—to get close enough that Wild can feel it’s breath on his face. It’s hind legs are trying to claw into his stomach and it’s forepaws are latched painfully around Wild’s shoulders, pinning him down with sharp claws. A frustrated and terrified yell escapes Wild’s throat when his hands slip completely. Twilight—the wolf the wolf the wolf—dives in for Wilds throat.

He feels the agony of fangs burying into his skin. His whole neck and chest goes warm as blood bursts through the wound, intensified by how Twilight is shaking his head, violently tearing skin, arteries, muscles, digging into bone. Wild can’t even scream, all he can do is tremble and fight to keep his eyes open.

He loses that battle.

And he blinks.

There’s fog above him and bare tree canopies. He swallows and pushes himself up so he’s sitting, hesitantly moving his hands to his neck. There’s nothing. He moves his ankle, and there’s no pain.

“What the…” he whispers, terror making his heart beat in his ears.

“Link?”

He startles and spins around as a very far away voice reaches his ears. He scrambles to his feet.

“Link?!”

“Hello?” He responds. He takes a hesitant step forward, almost afraid the wolf will jump out at him again, but nothing happens. He continues onward. He doesn’t recognize the voice, but it calls his name again: scared, desperate.

He continues to walk forward, carefully and wearily following the voice. It calls his name, louder. Scared. He swallows his own fear and pushes forward.

“LINK!”

He runs now, his energy entirely made up of fear, curiosity, and adrenaline. The voice is male, it’s strong and deep. He’s never heard it before, but it feels so familiar.

“ _LINK_!”

Its female, loving, gentle, but worried. He doesn’t know it, but he feels like he should. He goes faster, pushing through the forest.

“ ** _LINK_**!!”

A girl. Small. Terrified. Young. He should know it. He should _know_ it.

Their voices blend in one last desperate scream and he bursts through into a clearing. It’s silent.

“Hello?” He calls. He turns to look behind him and he pauses when the sees the forest has gone. It’s only fog. Nothing but fog. “Is anyone there?”

The white fog responds by twisting playfully. He turns back to look ahead and he freezes when multiple gray figures make themselves slightly visible through the endless white surrounding him. He takes a small step forward and the fog seems to mischievously dance away, revealing the figures.

They’re blocky and made of grey stone. He steps closer and observes the surface of the closest one.

“Urbosa,” he reads out loud. His eyebrows come together as his eyes travel down beneath the name chiseled into the stone. “Champion…”

The fog clears more and he’s able to see the rest of the stones. Revali. Daruk. Mipha.

He stares at the four stones until the realization of _what they are_ hits him like a startled horse.

He stumbles back from the gravestones in horror. The fog twirls and at the foot of Mipha’s stone is a bony hand poking out from the ground. His foot crushes something and he almost throws up when he sees a skull caved in in beneath his foot. Bones have replaced the dirt and he continues stumbling backwards until his knees hit something hard. He flails his arms but that does nothing to stop his fall. He lands on his back, white bone fragments digging into his body, as the object that tripped him lays at his feet.

Another gravestone.

He shakily sits up and looks at the name. Confusion washes over him as he squints and the letters. Father.

To his left is another stone, another name. Mother.

To his right. Sister.

“Wha-”

His voice cuts off as something grabs tightly onto his wrist. He looks down and scrambles up when he sees a small, bony hand wrapped around his wrist. It doesn’t let go, it rises with him. A scared whimper catches in his throat as an entire body rises from the bones. It’s small, and halfway decomposed, but definitely a little girl. Her clothes hang loosely against her ribcage and skin hangs off her face and arms like old rags. Golden hair drops down from the top of her skull and ends around her shoulders. She’s pale as death, an eye is hanging out one of her sockets.

“Link,” she whispers through a mouth that had holes in the checks, missing teeth. “Big brother…”

Wild tries to get the hand off him and tries not to scream in horror. The little girl isn’t letting go, her grip is too strong.

“Big… brother…”

He desperately scrambles backwards, hoping to dislodged her hand, but he’s stopped when he backs up into something large and study. Something falls onto his shoulder. It’s another hand.

He jumps away, the girl still clinging to him, as he turns and faces a large corpse standing above him. Black hair sat upon his head, a terrible thinning mustache sat above his mouth where his lips should be, except those have all rotted away.

“Son-” he groans. Another corpse stands behind him, she looks like an adult version of the little girl clinging to him.

“You killed us,” the woman says and Wild backs up as he claws at the girl’s hand. “You killed your mother-”

“Son… disappointed-”

“Big brother?”

He’s hyperventilating now. What is going on?! Who are these people?! He backs up but they’re walking towards him too fast. The girl is slowing him down, her boney hands dig into his wrists and draw blood. He feels a scream claw up to his throat when the man grabs his shoulder again and leans into his face. The woman wraps her decaying hand around his cheek and grabs onto his ear, his hair. He tries to tug away from them, but they’re too strong.

They’re leaning in, jaws unhinging as they wail and complain and beg and-

He closes his eyes and screams as he falls to the ground. His hands go above his head and he curls in as tight as he can go. It takes him a second to realize… that it is quiet… and nothing is grabbing onto him.

He slowly opens his eyes and lifts his head, lowering his arms. He’s back in the forest, but the fog is gone. It’s replaced with a starless black sky.

He wants to curl back into a ball and cry. He’s so scared and he has no idea what’s happening, but a warm orange glow catches his attention and familiar voices reach his ears.

It’s them. It’s the other heroes.

He lets out a breathless laugh as he slowly rises to his feet. Fake. It was all fake. It had to be. He continues towards the campfire as the comforting sound of weapons clinks against his back as he walks. His Sheikah Slate is at his hip. Everything is fine.

Yet, it couldn’t be further from that, and he knew that the moment he walks into the clearing. There aren’t eight other heroes sitting there, but eight shadowy figures with glowing eyes, all taking the forms of his friends.

He doesn’t think, he just acts. He pulls out his bow and shoots the smallest one, the one closest to him, in the chest, killing it instantly. The other figures jump to their feet and pull out their weapons. They glare at him and charge over their fallen comrade over towards Wild. Wild is prepared though. He shoots another with three arrows simultaneously and falls it. He then whips out his sword and slices the closest shadow across the stomach. Black ooze spills from it’s bowels as it’s crumbles to the ground. He gets to work on the others. One charges at him, a black sword held above it’s head as it swings down. He blocks and shoves it away before quickly grabbing his bow and shooting it in the forehead. Another down.

The shadows look more weary this time, they don’t all charge, but stand back and study him. He doesn’t give them a chance to finish deciding how they want to kill him before he unhooks his Sheikah Slate and summons a bomb. He throws it at them and let’s it explode.

Blue flashes and the shadows let out eerie screams before the explosion dies. Wild blinks, his eyes shocked from the sudden light, and sees that all the shadows have fallen except one. It’s standing there, leaning heavily to its side, glaring at him with hatred. Wild strides forward and shoves his sword into its gut before it can recover. It grunts and spits black ooze all over Wild’s face but Wild pushes the weapon further in, allowing the blade to emerge from the other side.

“W-ild…” the shadows whimpers.

Confused, Wild blinks, and it’s no longer a shadow being impaled by his blade, but Twilight.

“What…?” He breaths in horror

“Wild,” Twilight whispers in agony. Blood drips down his chin and his eyes lose so much light before he lets out a shakey last breath.

“Twi-” Wild starts, but his voice chokes off painfully. “No- nonono-” he can feel hot tears stream down his face. He gently lowers Twilight to the ground and presses down around the sword impaling Twilight’s stomach. _His sword_.

He looks up hoping to see health potions or anything, but what he sees makes his blood run cold like ice.

Sky is closest to him, laying on the ground still, lifeless. His eyes stare at Wild, blood dripping down his forehead from an arrow to the head. Across the clearing, Warrior, Wind, and Hyrule lay in bloodied messes, burns charing their skin black. Legend is crumpled on the ground, his stomach cut open, allowing his innards to spill out. Four is lifelessly laying by the campfire, an arrow in their chest. Time is close by, multiple arrows sticking out of his own.

“You killed everyone,” a voice says.

Wild spins around, tears blur his vision but he can clearly see Zelda, standing there with a cold look to her face. “Zelda-”

“You killed the champions,” she says, and red erupts from the center of her chest. Blood spills out her nose and mouth. “You killed your family.” Her hair begins to rot off her head, her skin begins to decay. “You killed your friends. You’ve failed everyone. You’ve failed me.”

“No- Zelda-”

She shakes her head and rotten skin falls off her jaw. She closes her eyes for a second before she opens them again. They’re glowing a horrifying red. Black smoke gathers around her body, making her look like the shadowy figures he has previously thought were his enemies. Except the form now is more clear. He can see her hair change and her body become more masculine. It’s size matches Wild’s, it’s stature is the same. It smiles, and it’s smile looks the same too.

“Hello, hero,” it says with his voice.

Wild finds himself suddenly standing in the middle of an open field. His friends bodies are gone, all that’s left of them is their blood that’s splattered all of Wild’s body. He’s facing the monster in front of him completely alone.

He doesn’t have to ask what it’s name is. He already knew.

“Shadow Link,” he whispers.

The thing starts to laugh, laughing so hard that Wild has to cover his ears. The world flashes and he flinches. He steps in something soggy, and he sees red rushing up around his feet. The laughter continues and Wild is now desperately trying to swim, desperately trying to keep the copper tasting liquid out from his mouth, but it rises too quickly. He’s drowning, drowning in his friend’s blood, all of them. He screams into the liquid and he can’t breath, he can’t see, he can hear nothing but the terrible laughter.

Then… Something is shaking him.

Something… is saying his name.

He gasps awake, his lungs working a mile a minute. He turns and leans over, heaving onto the forest floor. There’s a hand on his back but he doesn’t turn to it until he knows he has his stomach under control. He takes a deep breath and wipes at his mouth. Then, he turns.

Twilight is there, sitting not too far from Wild, looking concerned beyond words.

“You were having a nightmare,” he says, eyeing Wild up and down. “Are you okay?”

Wild furrows his eyebrows. “I… Think so. I don’t remember any nightmare.” He looks up and smiles. “Thanks for waking me up.”

“Yeah… no problem, cub.”

-o-o-o-o-

From the woods, a figure giggles happily as it’s eyes glint red in the moonlight. It’s body merges into the shadows and it returns into the darkness, it’s fun finished for the night.

Happy April Fools

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love them!!!!!!


	13. (Don't) Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wild was completely content going the rest of his life not remembering the past.

The first time Link has ever gained a memory, he vowed it would be the last. He climbed up to the base of Mount Lanayru and oh so innocently opened his Sheikah Slate to look at the picture, the memory. He remembers being excited. He had nothing back then, nothing but the few days he had gained since waking up at the shrine. There was a odd feeling that took over him as he compared the scenery to the picture, then he blinked and he found himself one hundred years in the past.

The memory was only a minute or two, but the moment he was back to reality, back in his own body, he kneeled over the vomited. He remembers feeling useless and terrified. He was that hero? He was supposed to stop that evil? It made him sick to his stomach, it made him tremble and shake and sob into the the cool dirt beneath him. He panicked and cried and stayed there for a very long time, trying to get ahold of himself. It was by luck the Lynel on the other side of the wall didn’t hear him. He wouldn’t have been able to defend himself.

He went back to Kakariko when he had finally gotten himself under some sort of control. He marched into Impa’s house and told her he will save the princess, he will destroy ganon, but he does not need his memories to do so. Impa looked surprised, shocked even, that Link would refuse to remember any of the past, though she probably knew that there would be no changing his mind, so she simply nodded and told him to go free the Divine Beasts.

That too became difficult for Link to do. He remembers standing at a Zora girls stature and falling unwillingly into a memory about her healing him, about the hope she had that Calamity Ganon would be a simple story to tell to the future generations. Link tumbled back into his body and panicked right there in front of Sidon and that Muzu. He doesn’t know if he lost respect that day, but he still was able to go to Vah Ruta and free it.

Then he was looking at a beautiful helmet sitting on the head of Riju and he could feel the memory coming. He couldn’t prepare himself for when it smashed into him. He was forced inside the memory, forced to watch Urbosa and Zelda bond as he, the unwanted soldier, stood by. Urbosa had faith in him. She shouldn’t have. He was just barely able to control himself when he returned to the present. After agreeing with Riju that they should head over to free Vah Naboris as soon as possible, he stumbled over to a quiet alleyway and let out the contents of his stomach and stayed there a long time, dry heaving and just barely managing to hold back tears.

And it was the same when he went to the Gorons and he saw that statue of Daruk. The same when he visited the Rito and looked at the landing pad. He was dragged into memories and he came out terrified and trembling and wishing he could forget. The memories were all too painful. They weren’t worth it. He could swing a sword, the Master Sword even, just fine without them. He avoided the spots where his other memories laid and he continued his journey, his quest to get stronger, and finally he went to defeat Ganon.

He did it just fine without his memories.

“Tell me, do you really remember me?” She asked, and Link replied no, he didn’t.

She seemed sad at that, but Link tried to comfort her to the best of his abilities. The old hero from a hundred years ago was dead, but Link now is alive and he would like to get to know her on his own terms.

And he did, and he never regretted it.

But, little did he know, there was another surprise memory waiting to be stumbled upon. The worst one.

The one of how he died.

-o-o-o-o-

They are at the Dueling Peaks Stable. After traveling for so long, the simple stable seems like such a blessing. Wild certainly is relieved to see it. Everyone are in low moods from the large amount of traveling they have just suffered through, most of them are starting to get snappy and full of complaint. Thankfully, just a few minutes of sitting and resting at the stable improves the spirits of the group dramatically.

Wild sits down at the campfire and happily begins to set up for dinner. Wind, Sky, and Hyrule follow after the stable master where he shows them how to care for the sheep. Four is laying in the grass, smiling joyfully as his eyes close contently. Warrior and Legend are enjoying a passive aggressive game of cards. Twilight and Time are inside the stable, setting it up with the second stable master of how to arrange beds and blankets with the sudden amount of guests, or more like trying to discuss how to pay for that. They’re being demanded to pay more money because of their excessive amount of numbers. The stable isn’t even relenting to Wild being there.

“Did you think you’d get a discount just because you have Link with you! Hah!”

Wild isn’t surprised by it at all, in fact, he expected that to happen. Hyrule now is ran by survivors, if they see an opportunity to make a quick rupee, they’ll take it. Time and the others aren’t used to that. They’re used to order, to something having a set value, and Wild will admit that even though they are going to get cheated, he still finds it amusing how much the dirty methods of his Hyrule throw everyone off.

The day passes lazily, yet no one complains about it. Soon enough, Wild has finished a rather large batch of smoked Hyrule bass for everyone in the stable (except for the stable masters of course, they’ll have to give them a fair price if they want food). Since there are not enough tables for everyone, Twilight, Time, and Warrior all dragged large pieces of firewood out into the field and set them up around a campfire. The group sat in a circle together as a cool breeze began to blow across the land, as the blue sky began to turn darker and the first stars dare to show.

Wild stuffed a bite of fish in his mouth and sighed in content. It’s hard being the cook because you get to smell the food while it’s cooking and not get to eat it.

“So, Hyrule and I were walking around,” Sky says suddenly and everyone looks up to him except for Hyrule himself; he’s a bit busy taking large bites of his fish, so he just nods, “and we saw a herd of wild horses.”

“There’s a lot of them here,” Wild replies. “They’re rather tame here too, easy to catch.”

“That’s why Hyrule and I were thinking we try to catch a few, it would make traveling quicker.”

“And easier,” Wind mumbled and took a bite of his meal.

“That’s a good idea,” Time says as he wipes his mouth of the miniscule amount of grease that got on his lip.

“It’s going to cost us some more rupees,” Wild points out, “the stable can harness the ones we catch.”

“We can afford it, you’re fish saved us a lot of rupees,” Twilight says, grinning. Wild grins back and looks back at the stable where the two stable masters are begrudgingly eating their own meals inside with the rest of the stable dwellers.

They talk a bit more about their plans for the next day and how much time they will need to capture nine horses, Wild says he can catch one per minute and no one believes him. They decide to head to Kakariko Village, it is the closest bit of civilization to them and Kakariko is something most of them have in common. The sun is completely gone now and the moon is beginning to rise as they chat.

They call it a night and gather into the stable. The stable masters have pulled out extra mattresses and every blanket they had so they could make enough sleeping spaces for everyone. Wild lets the stable dwellers get the beds and the group of heroes fall asleep, content, on the absurd amount of blankets on the floor. Well, except Warrior and Wind, they were hoping for beds. Time also is a bit grumbly about it, but that’s just because he played the price for nine beds, not nine blanket nests.

-o-o-o-o-

“HYLIA, CURSE IT!” Legend screams as a beautiful blue and white stallion notices him sneaking up on it before running away.

Wild chuckles as he pets the nose of the black mare he had just tamed. In under a minute even. Twilight also managed to tame a horse, though his method was a bit barbaric. He wasn’t expecting Twilight to full on wrestle with a horse while wearing iron boots. The mad man. Time at least had the decency to tame his horse normally.

“This place is creepy,” Twilight says as he looks around the field around them. His newly captured brown and white spotted horse flicks its ear and he pats it’s shoulder.

Wild hums in agreement and glances at their surroundings as well. The field itself is beautiful, it is large and filled with lovely and healthy green grass and hundreds of colorful wildflowers. What made it creepy is the maybe hundreds of lifeless guardian corpses that littered the land. They have no explanation, none of the stable dwellers know how they got there or what has killed them all. Wild didn’t really care about it, whatever happened occurred a hundred years ago. Before his time.

The sound of Legend’s cursing breaks through the air as Warrior gallops past on a beautiful white steed. He’s grinning smugly, as if he’s already planning how to rub it in Legend’s face that he caught a horse first. Another Horse gallops up and Wild can see Hyrule riding on it with Wind sitting behind him. Wild hopes that their plan to get Wind a horse wasn’t to launch Wind off the back of a running one, but judging by their determined looks as they got ever closer to a horse innocently munching on some wild flowers… It is clear that that is their plan exactly.

Four walks up to Wild and sits down next to him breathing hard. “I’m too small,” he says, panting. Sky joins them, chest heaving as well.

“They’re.… Too fast….” He says between breaths.

Wild rolls his eyes. “You guys aren’t doing it right.” He walks his horse over to where Time is grooming out the tangles of his horses mane. “I’ll show you how it’s done,” he says.

Time agrees to watch Wild’s horse as Wild takes off towards where a beautiful cream colored horse was nipping at the grass. Sky and Four follow along.

Legend swears again and the mare he’s been chasing for the past hour streaks further away. “Legend!” Four calls out, “Wild’s going to help us! You should come too!”

Legend shoots a glare over to Four and Four wears a satisfied smirk. Wild scoffs at the banter and tries not to laugh.

“Go!” Time calls out, smirking just a little.

Legend looks like he’s about to refuse, but then he looks back at his runaway horse and his shoulders sink. Just like that Legend, Four, and Sky are following Wild over to the next hose.

Wild stops a small distance from the horse and crouches down ever so slightly. “Okay, first you have to make sure the horse isn’t facing you.”

Four elbows Legend in the stomach playfully and Legend mumbles curses under his breath. “Make sure you remember that,” Four snarks.

Legend looks like he’s about to argue, but then Wild hushes him with a raised eyebrow. Once it was quiet, Wild continues.

“Now, you would sneak slowly up to them, and when you’re close enough you jump on. Then, comfort it so it doesn’t buck you off. It’s easy. Watch-”

He begins to move slowly and silently through the grass, but the horse snaps its neck behind it when Sky accidentally steps on a twig. The horse makes a distressed neigh and sprints off in the opposite direction.

“Sorry,” Sky mumbles.

Wild smiles and stands up. “C'mon, let’s go find it.”

He runs off over to where the horse disappeared to. With the others following behind, he runs over a hill and is about to run down it when he sees the horse still again as it sniffs the flowers, but… something suddenly feels off about the area. More off than normal.

He looks down to where two guardian husks are innocently enough lying toppled on the ground and he finds himself breaking off from the others.

“Wild, the horse is that way,” Legend grumbles but Wild is now ignoring them. Something… something was off. Very, very off.

He stops at the bottom of the small hill and looks at the two guardians and his mind starts to go blank. He panics when he realizes what’s happening. How has he stumbled upon a memory? He has pictures of them all, and they’re all places he had found so he can purposely avoid running into them. This one isn’t in there.

He wants out. He wants to scream and scramble backwards because he doesn’t want to know what happened here. He doesn’t want to know what happened one hundred years ago. He doesn’t want to know but his body is stuck, his eyes are staring at the husks and grass is tickling at his shins and Four is asking if he’s alright. He would cry no, he’s far from okay, if he could find his tongue. The edges of his vision is turning white and he has one final thought of terror before he’s plunged into a world of fire.

-o-o-o-o-

He aches. That’s the plainest way to say it. His whole body just aches. It aches as he deflects another Guardian from hitting Zelda behind him. It aches as his shield shatters. It aches as a deadly laser explodes along his side and sends him tumbling to the ground.

“Link!” Zelda screams. He can’t… He can’t fail her now. Not after all they have worked for. “Link, run! Get away from here, I’ll be fine…”

He coughs blood into the ground but forces himself to his feet once again with his sword held out. The fire licks at his legs and his whole left side is burning like it’s on fire. He can’t feel his left ear. He vaguely realizes that it’s been melted off.

“Link,” Zelda says again, probably through tears, but he can’t turn and look because there’s another Guardian climbing on top of two dead ones and it’s glaring it them.

He can feel his heart jump to his throat and he desperately tries to blink blood out from his eyes as the Guardian rears up and activates it’s laser. Link will take this, he will take this blow for Zelda so she can run. She’s too important, so important. So, so very important.

The guardian is about to fire and Link is about to close his eyes to accept his fate, but Zelda pushes him out of the way, screaming. The world tips below him and he desperately tries to find his footing. Everything explodes into beautiful golden and Link stares wide eyes at Zelda who has a glowing mark on her hand, who is killing every guardian with each pulse of golden light that erupts from her palm. He sees the guardian flicker sadly before it collapses. Zelda relaxes her posture and looks at her hand like she’s surprised.

Link has just a second to think how proud of her he is, how he’s not surprised, before he collapses too.

“Link? Link!”

He can feel his body being shaken and it takes all of his strength to keep his eyes open long enough to see her face, begging him not to go. To stay. To help her. “You’re going to be okay, Link, we’ll get help, we’ll-”

Link can only smile a fraction at her before his consciousness is ripped away from him with the sound of her horrified gasp. Everything goes black.

-o-o-o-o-

“Wild?”

He’s forced back into the present and he can feel every last scar on his body burn. He stumbles back, looking at the fallen Guardians in a new light that he did not want.

A hand touches his shoulder and he flinches back violently as the realization of what has happened hits him. He’s just remembered something, he remembers his death. He bends over and pukes.

“Woah! Wild?!”

He tries to take a deep breath but he can’t. His scars are on fire, he can feel each tendril of scarred tissue along his whole body painfully clear. He forgets to stand, and he falls to his knees and bends forward so he’s leaning on his elbows, his forehead touching the ground. He’s heaving for breaths and everything is so quiet but so loud at the same time.

For a second, he thinks it’s like the first time, but then his stomach rebels again and a whimper is forced from his throat as his whole body twinges in agony. The air is too thick, he can’t take any in, but he’s desperately trying to. He hacks acid from his throat, his breakfast already out of his stomach, and he’s about to continue to dry heave until he feels something touch his shoulder.

He flinches. Danger. There’s danger. He has to fight- he’s always fighting-

He scrambles onto his feet and pulls out his sword, facing the blurry figures in from of him. He blinks and they’re Guardians, he blinks again and it’s Calamity Ganon, then is Bokoblins and with each breath the enemy shifts and Wild… Link is terrified.

He swings his sword when a figure gets to close, but his weapon is instantly blocked. He can hear yelling through the ringing in his ears and he continues to fight. He has to fight. Protect Zelda. Don’t die don’t die don’t die.

Arms wrap his arms and chest from behind and he’s forced to drop his sword. He’s locked against the chest of the surprise attacker and it sends his fear through the roof. He screams and kicks his legs back desperately but the restraining hold doesn’t relent, it just gets tighter.

Everything is spinning and his body feels so heavy. He unwillingly slumps against his captor. He tries and fails to keep tears at bay. He can feel himself losing consciousness and he wants to fight it, he really does, but… the blackness sounds more comforting than reality.

-o-o-o-o-

Wild wakes up slowly, likes he’s trying to swim through mud. Everything hurts, his chest, his head, his arms, and he almost wants to give back into sleep, but there’s someone holding onto his hand.

“Wild? Are you awake, cub?”

Wild opens his eyes and blinks at the stable ceiling. He doesn’t recall falling asleep here. He groans and lifts his hands to his eyes, rubbing at them until he could see clearly.

“Wild?”

“Hmm?”

He turns his head and sees Twilight sitting at the side of the bed, worry pulling his eyebrows together.

“What happened?” Wild asks. He holds back a hiss of pain as he begins to pull himself up so he’s sitting.

“You tell me,” Twilight says through a half-hearted chuckle. Wild gives him a look and Twilight clears his throat, sadness overtaking his features. “You… were attacking Legend, Sky, and Wind.”

“W-what.”

Twilight sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. “Wild… do you remember what happened at all?”

Wild remains silent for a few seconds, wracking his brain, until he does remember.

He remembers everything.

“Oh,” he chokes. “Oh.”

“No- cub, don’t cry-”

But Wild is. He can feel the tears running down his cheeks as he his whole body loses strength. He slumps back down so he’s lying and he brings his hands to his face. He silently let’s his tears fall.

“Cub, it’s okay, you’re okay-” Twilight’s hand goes down gently on Wild’s shoulder but Wild flinches. He hates that he flinches, especially to a touch from Twilight, but the thought of touch sends nausea bubbling into his stomach. Twilight’s hand whips back like he’s been burned. Wild doesn’t know why that hurts him so much.

“What happened?” Twilight whispers.

Wild shakes his head against the back of the pillow.

_“I’m sorry.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I didn't expect you guys to like Shadow as much as you all did! That's amazing!
> 
> Thanks for the comments!! Love love love them all!


	14. Doubt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary: It’s funny how one thought can lead to another, and suddenly the whole world feels like it’s tilting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hrrn, it's been awhile huh? I still have quite a few of these to put up..... I honestly have no good excuse for not doing so lol.
> 
> This one is interesting!! I sorta forgot about this one, but while I was going through my master post on Tumblr to copy and past here I saw I put a star next to it, which means it's a personal favorite. 
> 
> And after re-reading it I can say that it's still a personal favorite. I like this one. It's interesting. I tried to go into Wild's thoughts and it was written in a way I haven't done before and haven't done since, but it's good. To me at least haha.
> 
> Warnings: panic attacks, low self esteem / intrusive thoughts.

Sometimes the others would talk about something that Wild didn’t recognize. They’ll mention it casually in their conversations and everyone would nod along. Everyone knows what it is except Wild. Wild has no clue what it is, but everyone else knew so every time he’s about to ask what they’re talking about, his cheeks go warm and his voice catches in his throat.

Should he know what it is? Would they be mad at him because he doesn’t? Why is he the only one left out when it comes to this mysterious item.

“Yeah, so, Zelda thought that the best way to keep the Triforce safe was to split of the Triforce of Wisdom up into eight separate pieces,” Hyrule explains around the campfire. Wild watches as Time nods as if he understands exactly what’s being said. Twilight has a thoughtful look on his face, Wind is watching Hyrule talk with wide and interested eyes, even Legend looks like whatever Hyrule is talking about is making complete sense. “So I had to go find all the pieces to save Hyrule.”

“I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with that,” Warrior says with a sigh. “All the Triforce did for me was glow on my hand. I think that’s how Zelda and Impa knew I was the chosen hero.”

“Well, it glowed on my hand too,” Hyrule puts in.

“Mine too, I also had to find eight pieces of the Triforce” Wind speaks up, holding up his hand and Wild stares at it, hoping to see whatever they are talking about.

“Twilight has it tattooed on his,” Four suddenly speaks up and Wild spins to stare at Twilight in shock. He’s never noticed anything on Twilight’s hand, let alone some weird glowing thing.

Twilight is rubbing the back of his neck and looking embarrassed as everyone’s attention turns towards him. “It’s- ah- not a tattoo. It kind of a… birthmark?”

“That’s cool,” Wind says as Time smiles and pats Twilights shoulder.

Legend goes on to talk about how he had to deal with  _two_  versions of the Triforce and then Sky mentions that he’s the one who assembled it and Wild gets more and more confused. Even Time puts in a bit of his story, saying that Ganondorf tried to take the Triforce for himself but it broke and Zelda got a piece and Time himself got a piece. Wild remains silent the entire time as the conversation eventually moves on from the mysterious Triforce to other topics such as what they are going to do the next day and who’s going to take first watch.

Soon, everyone moves away from the campfire and snuggles into their beds. Wild is in the middle of sliding under his blanket when he sees Twilight taking off his gloves and arm bracers. He swallows and clears his throat.

“Hey Twi?” He asks quietly. Twilight looks up from the strap on his arm and smiles at him.

“What’s up, cub?” He replies.

Wild flicks his eyes down to Twilight’s hand before he clears his throat again and looks down at the ground. “Can I see it? The- um- Triforce?”

He looks up hesitantly and Twilight is looking at him in surprise. Wild swallows and instantly regrets asking. He has just hoped that maybe if he can see the Triforce… he’ll know what it is.

“Neverm-”

“Sure,” Twilight says, cutting out Wild’s attempt to back out of the conversation. “Just let me finish taking off the bracers.” Twilight turns back to his arm and finishes his task before he’s climbing out of his sheets and scooting closer to Wild. Twilight holds out his bare hand, on the back of it is an oddly familiar looking design.

A triangle, four of them, pieced together like a puzzle to make a bigger form of the same shape.

“It’s black?” Wild finds himself asking as he grabs Twilight’s hand to get a better look.

“Ah, no, it glows gold when… when it’s being used I suppose,” Twilight replies. Wild realized suddenly that Twilight sounds uncomfortable and he quickly let’s go of Twilight’s hand. “Well, just the Triforce of Courage glows,” he continues. Wild watches as Twilight returns to his blankets and yawns loudly.

Wild has no idea what that means, he supposes each triangle has a different meaning. Triforce of Courage, Wisdom, and Power has all been mentioned earlier that night.

“Shut up… you’re both so loud,” Legend grumbles from his own nest of blankets and Twilight chuckles as Wild mutters an apology. Legend scoffs and snuggles deeper into his blankets.

“He’s right,” Time speaks up from where he’s leaning against the tree, claiming first watch, “you all need your sleep. It’s time to quiet down.”

Twilight rolls his eyes in response and winks at Wild before he lays down. Wild does the same, slower, thoughts occupied by what he has seen.

“Thanks, Twilight.” Wild whispers and Twilight hums sleepily in response. Legend growls and Wild shuts his jaw, knowing if he made another sound Legend would show no mercy.

He stares at the sky for a few seconds. Something about the symbol was so familiar to him, and imagining that mark glowing gold struck something in him. He thinks… that maybe… Link from one hundred years ago knows what the Triforce is, but then again that feels wrong too. He’s seen the Triforce before… he knows he has, he just has to remember…

His eyes slip shut with that not so encouraging thought.

-o-o-o-o-

He knows where he’s seen the symbol before, and it does nothing but raise more questions. It took him a few days, but eventually, imagining the black symbol on Twilight’s hand glowing gold triggered a half formed memory. He thinks it’s understandable that it took him a few seconds to remember it, he was dying at the time after all.

He remembers standing there in the wreckage, about to meet his end to a deadly beam, but Zelda pushes him out of the way and lifts up her hand. His vision is so blurry and he feels actual fear course through his veins that they have failed, that Zelda is going to die  _before_  him. He needs to protect her, but he can hardly breathe let alone move.

Something tells him suddenly that she can protect herself and with golden light erupting across the land, he feels safe for the first time in a very long time. His muscles relax and his eyes flutter as he lets himself fall. He meets the ground in what feels like slow motion, and then he sees it. The back of her hand is glowing.

He saw it through blurry vision, but the more he thinks about it, the more it becomes clear to him. She has the Triforce glowing on the back of her hand, all three sections of it.

He wonders what that means. Twilight, Warrior, Wind, Time, all of them who has had it appear on the back of their hands say that only the Triforce of Courage had been filled in. Zelda has the Triforce of Wisdom. Ganon has the Triforce of Power.

But his Zelda has all three. Calamity Ganon has never shown any sign of having it. Wild himself knows that he’s never had it either.

What does that mean?

It wracks at his brain as they travel. No one mentions their conversation from the past few nights, they’ve all moved on, but Wild can’t stop thinking about it. He thinks of it as he cooks. He thinks of it as he’s sparring with Warrior, he can’t keep his eyes focused on anything other than Warrior’s hand that has held a power that Wild cannot even imagine. He thinks of it as he keeps watch during the night, each of their stories bounce in his head like those giant metal balls in the shrines.

_What does it mean. Zelda has all three. Wild has… none?_

Warrior says he knew he was the chosen hero when he saw the glowing symbol.

_What does it mean_.

Time says that the Triforce is the most important and powerful artifact in the world. Why does Wild not have it?

_What does it mean._

Wind says that he felt like he was just a normal kid until he put together the Triforce, then he was a hero.

_What does it mean? What **could**  it mean?_

Does it mean… he’s not like them? It wouldn’t be the first piece of evidence. There’s so many things about Wild that just isn’t like the others. The Triforce isn’t even close to the beginning.

He does his best to shake these thoughts away but they keep coming back, hitting him constantly, persistently clawing at the back of his mind during every step, every conversation, every meal, every single goddess damned blink of the eye.

Shaking the thoughts away are a lot easier said than done…

-o-o-o-o-

_**They don’t want you.** _

_That’s not true. All of them talk with me and are so nice._

**They don’t think you’re a hero.**

_But I am a hero. I saved Zelda, I defeated Calamity Ganon._

**_After you let everything get destroyed, of course._ **

_It's… not my fault._

**_Hyrule didn’t let Ganon destroy the world. Wind didn’t. Twilight, neither Warrior, nor Sky. None of them failed like you did._ **

_But… but I fixed it._

**_Barely. And if you think that’s the only reason they don’t want you around, you’re dead wrong. The Triforce? You don’t have it, what’s a Hero of Courage without the Triforce of Courage?_ **

_I_ -

**_Nothing. You’re nothing. Let see, what was it, you break everything you touch? Ah yes. Even the Master Sword I believe._ **

_But it came back-_

**_Sky yelled at you after that, didn’t he? He never yells at anyone. Not even Legend after hours of relentless teasing. He doesn’t trust you with the sword, you’re more of a child than Wind._ **

_Stop it._

**_//Speaking about Legend, he was the one to say it, right? You break everything you touch? Harsh, but you and I both know that’s true._ **

_Shut up!_

**_How about when you broke one of the swords Warrior lent you? Or that time you caught Hyrule’s sleeping bag on fire-_ **

_It was an accident-_

**_Or the time you broke your promise to protect Zelda, to defeat Calamity Ganon? You did a botched job on that, you died and left her to endure torture for a hundred years._ **

…  _Stop_.

**_The reason the goddesses didn’t give you the Triforce is because they feared you’d break that too! The only reason you’re here is because you just happened to be there when the Sword needed someone quickly, there’s hundred of more people more qualified to be a hero than you. Or were. They’re all dead now, after all._ **

…

**_Going silent? What a surprise, it’s what you do best after all. Though, the others all prefer it that way anyway._ **

…

-o-o-o-o-

His eyes slowly open and he groans. Another nightmare, and one he can remember too. He kind of regrets wanting to remember his dreams, it’s easier when he forgets. Though, he doesn’t think that the nightmares he’s having are the same as the ones where he’d have to be woken up, ones from the past, ones that his subconscious knew existed but the rest of his brain just couldn’t hold a grasp on.

These are nightmares of the present, and it’s been going on for a week. Every time he closes his eyes, words from a strange but somehow familiar voice are hissed into his ear, telling him about how useless and unwanted he is.

The worst part is? He’s starting to believe it.

He knows he shouldn’t. He knows that each member of the group actually enjoy his company and genuinely care about him, but the thoughts are still there. He hates it.

He slowly sits up, careful not to wake anyone else up, and leans forward so his head is buried in his hands. He breathes. Just breathes, because he doesn’t know how much longer he can take this. It’s eating him up, slamming at his skull constantly. He can’t believe how far he’s spiraled from a simple conversation about one thing. It was just the Triforce, now it’s the way Sky slightly turns his back where the sword rests away from Wild, or how Time is constantly giving him pitying looks, or how Warrior seems to want to talk to anyone other than Wild, or-

He rubs at his eyes and brings his knees up. Something needs to snap, he thinks. Something needs to break and prove whether or not he’s worthy of being there with the others. He doesn’t know how much longer he can keep this up.

“Uh, Wild?”

Wild freezes, he forgot someone would be on watch. Slowly, he lifts his face and meets Twilight. Goddess, of course it’s Twilight.

“You okay there?” Twilight asks from across the camp. He’s leaning against the tree; he’s looking sleepy but worried.

The song birds start to lazily chirp, their songs cut through the light blue sky and Wild tries to remember how to speak.

“Yeah,” he says, finally. He hopes Twilight takes the choke in his voice as morning grogginess. “Just a nightmare.”

Twilight’s eyebrows come together and he stands up. Wild wants to yell at him to stay there and not bother himself, but he can’t, he just sits there and watches as Twilight settles down next to him and offers a bit of dried meat. “Do you want to talk about it?” He asks slowly,  _like Wild is a ticking bomb._

No, because he’s a friend and he’s worried about Wild.

“I don’t remember it,” he lies. Twilight huffs and gives him a disbelieving look.

“I’m worried about you, cub,” Twilight says and before Wild can protest he continues, “you’ve been quiet, I don’t remember the last time you smiled.”

“I smile,” Wild insists.

Twilight gives him that disbelieving look again and Wild wants to scream. “A  _real_  smile, cub.”

“I’m okay,” Wild says shortly. He makes to get up and away from this confrontation because he’s suddenly not ready. He’s not ready to spill the beans and let his feelings come into the open. He’s not ready for his fears to be right, he’s not ready for them to hate him, he’s not ready to find out that none of them actually want him around, he’s not ready and he wants to pause it. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day, or the next, just not today.

He’s not ready, so he says he’s okay and he forces on a smile. He’s not ready, so he makes up lies when confronted.

_He’s not ready._

“Wild-” Twilight says, starting to stand up too.

Something snaps in Wild in that moment. It was like that one word went through his ears and spread around his whole body like a poison, flicking every switch he has been desperately trying to keep off. Why don’t they understand, he thinks, why can’t they see that he doesn’t want to talk about it, that he’d rather sit and figure it out even though his own thoughts are toxic. Why do they always hound him and scold him and baby him an why why why-

“You don’t have to mother me!” Wild snarls, and Twilight stumbles back in shock, “I don’t need your pity, or your sympathy, I don’t need you  _breathing_  down my back every single goddess damned minute of the day!”

Twilight’s eyes are wide and some of the others are starting to wake up, but Wild can’t stop, he can’t stop his hands trembling or the tears stinging his eyes despite how he’s chanting in his head that he’s okay over and over again. He knows he’s made a mistake, but instead of staying and apologizing he turns and tries to run. His body is reacting on it’s own, listening to how hurt and bruised his heart is and not his brain that’s trying to rationalize.

“Wild, no-”

A hand wraps around Wild’s wrist and something snaps again, he spins and punches Twilight straight in the jaw. Wild feels his heart shatter into a million pieces as Twilight falls backwards with a red bruise already beginning to form on his face. Time, who sounds groggy but awake, makes a surprised noise and Wind calls out in surprise.

**_You’re always making mistakes. Look at you making another one, and they all saw. They’re not going to want you back after this._ **

Wild brings his hands up to his ears, turns, and runs.

-o-o-o-o-

He’s fine. He’s thinking clearly. He can rationalize, he is in total awareness of himself and what he’s doing. He just can’t control it. He can’t control the way he slumps against a tree or the way his fingers are digging into his scalp or how tears keep forming and falling. He tries to stop it. He’s fine. He’s okay. But it isn’t working. He puts his hands down and they shake, they end up back in his hair. He shifts to stand up, but his legs feel like chu chu jelly. He stops his tears, but they start again a second later.

“You’re fine,” he whispers as he gives up and curls up with his knees touching his chest. “You’re fine. Calm down.”

He doesn’t know how far from camp he ran. It seems like forever but he doesn’t remember any of it. All he knows is that the bottoms of his bare feet are bleeding and he’s panting.

**_They’re not going to come for you._ **

He shakes his head and clutches his ears. How dare that voice creep into his mind during the day. How dare it escape his nightmares. Doesn’t he hear it enough?

**_You’re selfish, you want them to find you and comfort you and tell you you’re worth it._ **

He doesn’t want to answer but he whimpers one anyway. “I don’t want them to come,” he says, “I want to be alone.”

**_Liar. You’re constantly craving attention and validation. You want them to come and tell you everything is okay, that you’re not broken, that you’re part of their team._ **

“Stop it, stop it…”

**_Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. They’re not going to come. They’re probably already traveling the other way thinking “good riddance!”_ **

Wild curls in more into himself. He hates how much he’s spiraled. It was just the Triforce, just that. He hates what being alone with his own thoughts does to him, but he can’t talk to people. He’s awkward and shy and what he says is usually always taken the wrong way or it’s somehow offensive. He doesn’t get it. Why isn’t he like them? Why can’t he be like them?

_**You aren’t like them; you’re a** _ **_FAILURE._ **

Wild is trembling now. He can’t control it. His face is wet from tears, his nose is running and he is forced to breathe through his mouth, making it possible for sobs to tear through his throat.

He should just give into it, give into his doubts. It would be easier that way. Stop the false hope, stop the broken hearts. He doesn’t know how much longer he can continue on anyway.

He nearly jumps out of his skin when suddenly, a body is next to him. He hasn’t noticed anyone follow him, let alone get close enough to sit by him.

The first thing he sees is the angry bruise, and then that’s the only thing he can see. He did that. He did that to his best  _friend_. He doesn’t see the worried eyes, or the questioning lips, just the bruise.

“I’m-” Wild gasps, “I’m so sorry-”

Arms wrap around Wild’s shoulders and he’s suddenly pulled into a crushing hug. Wild doesn’t deserve it. It has to be fake. Alternative motive, anything. Anything to not give Wild the false hope that Twilight actually still cares for him.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Twilight whispers.

Wild shakes his head and pushes himself away. Twilight thankfully lets him go. “No, no you don’t get it,” he says. “I’m not like you, I don’t belong with you-”

“What gave you that idea?” Twilight says, a bit angrily.

**_Anger towards you._ **

_Anger towards the very idea._

“I-”

“Wild, cub, please talk to me. We’re all worried.”

**_A burden._ **

_A friend_.

_**Hates you.** _

_Worried. Love._

He needs to say it, he can’t take it anymore. His heart, his head, arguing. Everything hurts so much even though the last battle was more than a week ago.

**_Useless_**.

He has to tell them.

**_Awkward_**.

Tell him.

**_Unwanted_**.

“It’s… the Triforce,” he finally is able to strangle out. His eyes drift down to Twilight’s covered hand, but he remembers the shape, the color, the size.

“What do you mean?”

**_Stop now. Back out. You’ll just embarrass yourself._ **

“I- I don’t have it,” he whispers.

Twilight frowns and Wild is ready to run again, but then Twilight looks right into Wild’s eyes and Wild is suddenly frozen in place. “Why does that matter?”

Wild opens his mouth and closes it a few times before he sighs and turns his gaze to the ground. “You all have it. Makes you all heroes. I… I'm…”

“Wild, what you’re telling me is that you defeated Calamity Ganon all on your own, without any Triforce or heavily powers?” Twilight cuts in. “And you’re upset about that?”

Wild shakes his head. “You don’t understand.”

“You know how amazing that is, right?”

“Twilight-”

“Without the Triforce, I’d be dead. I don’t know about the others, but I needed that power. I needed that Courage,” Twilight continues, “and you didn’t. You were brave all on your own. Wild, you’re amazing. The Triforce doesn’t make you a hero, you do. You  _did_.”

“…”

“And if you think that… that something like that would make me not want you around, you’re dead wrong. I want you here, cub. I want you to stay with us, the others do too. Had to almost tie Wind down so he wouldn’t run blindly into the forest to find you himself.”

Twilight puts his hand on Wild’s shoulder and Wild looks up, feeling hope, confusion, fear, love, everything all at once.

“We care about you, Wild, it doesn’t matter how different you think you are from us, we still love you. Do you understand?”

**_You know he’s lying, right?_ **

Wild nods and slowly let’s Twilight embrace him in another hug. “Yeah…” He says, and he isn’t sure which voice he’s responding to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah? Yeah???? Interesting right? I'm interested to hear what you guys thought about it. 
> 
> Also, I'm gonna try to start commenting back to you guys so you all know I read and really appreciate your feedback. Gonna start doing it on Tumblr too. Thanks for reading!!!! <3


	15. Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hyrule learns to have hope even in the darkest of times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I... Just don't like this one? I didn't have a ton of fun writing it, especially since it was supposed to be written in the perspective of characters I wasn't confident in (AT THE TIME), so this story just falls flat in my opinion. But a lot of people did like this one. So. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> If you like it, great! If you don't, that's okay too!
> 
> Warnings: extreme doses of angst, graphic description of injury

“Sun’s going down,” Wind announces for the third time in the past two minutes. Hyrule watches as Time sighs and looks up at the sky in a ‘why me’ expression as Sky agrees that the sun is, indeed, going down.

“We need to keep going for a little longer,” he says and even Legend groans at that.

Hyrule would also complain but he also gets what Time means by the need to continue. In their travels they have somehow ended up in a deep canyon with cliff walls towering higher than anything Hyrule has seen for a long time. It’s a perfect place for an ambush, a perfect place to be cut off and trapped, and even if there are no monsters waiting to attack them, nature could still just as easily kill them with falling rocks or a sudden flood. They need to find a way out of the canyon before they stop to rest.

Sadly, there isn’t any way out so far.

No one knows whose world they are in so far, no one recognizes the canyon surrounding them, but that’s not surprising either. Monsters and people are no longer in their correct place, structures and lands are starting to merge. Just a week ago, they found a house from Twilight’s Kakariko Village smack in the middle or Wilds. This canyon could be a combination of everyone’s, or something completely different.

Whatever the case, they need to get out, no matter how much Hyrule’s feet hurt and how much he would rather be asleep.

“We’ll go till sundown, just an hour more,” Twilight puts in and Time gives him a look that he’d rather continue during the night, but Twilight returns a look and Time sighs. Their group are all tired, and if Time makes them travel through the night, Hyrule isn’t sure he’ll keep from complaining for long.

Wind groans and glares at the sun as if he could scare it into sinking faster while Four gives him a smile that’s half sympathetic and half snickering while Wild offers to carry Wind on his back.

Wind doesn’t complain then.

Hyrule’s feet are aching by the time the sun sinks low enough to cast the world in shadow. The sky is a dark blue color and stars are starting to shine. Finally, Time let’s the group stop and set up camp with the conditions that instead of one watch for the night, two at a time would go.

No one disagrees.

Hyrule rubs his feet and shakes dust from his boots as everyone begins to set up their bed rolls. Wild sets Wind—who has fallen asleep—down on some blankets and stands up, stretching his back. He looks at his bed and then sighs, wiping sweat off from his brow. He begins to walk away from the group but is stopped when Twilight grabs his shoulder.

“Where are you going?” Twilight demands.

“Out of firewood. Going to go find some,” Wild replies simply and Twilight gives him an upfronted look.

“You’re exhausted,” Time interrupts and Hyrule can’t help but agree. Wild may have the most stamina of the group, but he’s been carrying the dead weight named Wind for the last hour. He looks like he really needs a full night’s rest.

Wild shoots Time an annoyed look. “We need wood-”

“I can go,” Hyrule says as he forces himself to his feet. He may be aching but he has more endurance than everyone else in the group besides Wild. He’s a better choice to go out than Sky or Legend after all.

“You sure?” Twilight asks just as Wild opens his mouth to protest.

“Yeah, it’s no problem.”

“You’re not going alone,” Time says.

“I’ll go,” Four volunteers.

Hyrule nods and begins to strap his sword and bow to his body. Soon enough, he and Four are strolling through the darkening canyon with nothing but tumbleweeds and half decayed trees as any source of wood. Thankfully, they have been finding sticks and branches here and there and they have piled up a good amount. They have been working in companionable silence for most of the task, only exchanging words here and there.

Hyrule hefts his small pile of wood and turns back to where Four is picking up another dried branch. “I think we have enough,” Hyrule says. Four turns back to him and is about to reply, but suddenly he’s stumbling back and calling out in pain and surprise as a rather large arrow hits his shoulder.

“Four!” Hyrule yells and drops his sticks. He pulls out his own shield just in time to block an arrow that had been heading right towards his heart. He sprints over to where Four is struggling to get out his bow, the only sign that he recognizes that there’s an arrow in his shoulder is the painful pulling in his eyebrows.

Hyrule catches another arrow with his shield and looks over towards where the fire is coming from. Across the canyon is a red glow, fluttering paper, and a person materializing out of thin air.

“Yiga,” Hyrule says, dropping his shield for just a second so he could shoot an arrow over to their attacker. He growls when the assassins disappears with a happy chuckle before the arrow can hit it’s mark.

“No,” Four growls and fires off in another direction. There’s a screech and a leathery body falls from a hiding spot high up on the cliff wall. A Bokoblin. “Not just the Yiga.”

There’s a howl and a wolf creature that Hyrule has never seen before starts sprinting towards Hyrule, slobber dripping from it’s snout and claws stained yellow. There’s more than one enemy, all from different time periods.

The wolf jumps up at Hyrule and he’s just able to bring up his shield, but an arrow whips past and slices through the top of his shoulder, sending waves of stinging pain up his neck. He shoves the wolf to the ground and whips his sword out and buries it into the skull of the wolf before it can attack again.

“Hyrule!” Four screams and Hyrule whips around just in time to see Four get grabbed by skeletal hands below him. Stalifols.

He starts to run towards Four, who is being forced down to the ground by multiple hands, but he’s stopped when a body appears out of nowhere and kicks him in the gut.  Hyrule gasps and the Yiga assassin chuckles as Hyrule gets grabbed from behind. Hyrule struggles in the grasp, seeing that another assassin, a bigger one, is the one whose grabbed him.

He viciously tries to rip his arms out from the grasp, but a kick to the back of his knees sends him down and his sword is torn from his grasp. His wrists are grabbed and are eventually tugged behind his back, coarse leather begins to be wrapped around them.

Hyrule frantically looks over to where Four has been completely restrained to the ground by the stalifols, where the other Yiga is casually strolling over with a long leather cord in their hands.

They don’t want to kill Hyrule and Four. They want to take hostages.

Hyrule snarls and in one last attempt to get free, he slams his head backwards and hits the Yiga hard, making them stumble back and weaken their grasp on Hyrule. He tears his hands free from the half done knots and snatches his sword from the ground. In the blink of an eye, he spins around and buries his sword into the Yiga’s stomach. He let’s the assassin fall to the ground with the sword still impaling him as he turns and loses an arrow all in a couple moments. The arrow hits its mark, violently slamming into the back of the other Yiga’s neck.

The stalifols makes a distressed whine before they let go of Four and bury themselves back into the ground.

Hyrule is left standing there, breathing hard, as the two Yiga drop to the ground dead.

He’s just killed two people. Monsters are one thing… but these are people. The urge to vomit climbs up his throat, but he forces himself to ignore it as Four groans and struggles to stand up. He has a hand clutching around where the arrow has pierced his shoulder.

“You okay?” Hyrule asks. Four shakes his head but he has a determined gleam in his eyes. He opens his mouth to speak, but is cut off from an angry roar coming from where the camp is set up.

“The others,” Four whispers. Four grabs the shaft of the arrow and breaks off the the end before he turns and sprints away. Hyrule is close at his heels.

-o-o-o-o-

Hyrule does his best not to breathe too hard or gasp as he and Four hide behind a boulder. There are more monsters, way more than what they can handle. Proof of that? The others have all be captured, which Hyrule doubts was very easy to do. There are bodies of Bokoblins and other creatures littering the ground, but as many as there are dead there are standing. Some creatures Hyrule doesn’t recognize, green troll like ones with large horns riding on boars, lizard like monsters with slimy skin and sharp claws. He can see more stalifols, more Yiga, more of those wolf monsters, all walking around the destroyed camp ground like the owned the place.

There’s one more monster, the reason why Hyrule and Four hasn’t even attempted to leave their cover and rescue them.

A Lynel, but one Hyrule has never seen before. It’s fur is a bright gold and it’s fangs drip with blood. A large club sits against it’s back and the biggest bow Hyrule has ever seen is clutched in it’s massive paws.

Monsters working together is one thing, but monsters working with a Lynel is a whole other ballpark.

“What do we do?” Four whispers and Hyrule shakes his head because he has no clue. There are enemies everywhere and the rest of their group are all bound hand and foot on the ground, separate and with guards by each of them as the Yiga go around looking through their stuff. Time looks pale as a Yiga soldier pulls out a collection of masks out from his bag and Legend is snarling and having to held down as a Bokoblin curiously dumps the contents of Legend’s bag on the ground. No one looks too hurt, just scratched up. Hyrule’s guess is that all the dead monsters on the ground were sent in just to tire everyone out, and then they sent in the Lynel. They were either captured or they surrendered after that.

The only one who looks really injured is Wild, and Hyrule’s stomach drops when he understands why. The Yiga seem to be leading the ambush and there are more of them than the other monsters, they are more intelligent too. Intelligence holds grudges. Wild is lying exhausted on the ground, not even struggling in his bonds as blood drips down his various wounds. His hands are wrapped in rubber and the leather rope is already cutting into his flesh from the tightness. Twilight is constantly looking back and forth from Wild and the green, horned monster who sat on the largest boar from his group.

“I thought you changed,” hisses Twilight, and the monster laughs.

“I told you,” it says. Its voice is surprisingly clear though it’s very deep and seems to be caught in its throat, “I follow the strongest side! You’re no longer superior!”

The other green Bokoblin-like monsters gurgle lighter. Twilight looks over to the Yiga member who seems to be the leader judging by their stature and weapons on their body. Hyrule is wondering probably the exact thing Twilight is: are these assassins the ones who are more superior? Or is it someone else?

“Hyrule,” Four whispers and Hyrule looks away from their captive members down towards Four. He’s bleeding still, the arrow shaft still dug into his shoulder, looking painful. Hyrule knew they need to get some sort of health potion soon or Four will be more than a little pale and in pain.

“I’m thinking,” he whispers back.

Wind swearing and spitting insults no young man should know brings Hyrule’s attention back to the scene before them. A Bokoblin is lifting up Wind as the boy struggles and spits in his bonds, everyone starts snarling threats and insults but it goes ignored as Wind is placed stomach down on a riderless boar. Legend puts up more of a fight when it’s his turn to be lifted, it takes three monsters to carry him and tie him down next to Wind. They begin to lift the others one by one.

They’re packing them up. Taking them somewhere.

“We need all nine,” the leader Yiga growls suddenly as Wild is carried like dead weight with Twilight and Time over to another boar. Hyrule swallows and he shrinks further behind the rock he is hiding behind.

“He won’t be happy with seven,” another Yiga says. Hyrule barely has time to wonder who “he” is before the leader sighs and waves at the large green creature Twilight has been snarling at earlier.

In seconds, the boars and monsters all start heading down further into the canyon as the moon begins to rise. Hyrule and Four and left there, wondering what in the world they are going to do.

-o-o-o-o-

Four hisses as Hyrule spreads a homemade paste on his shoulder. He had to push the broken arrow through Fours back, so now there are two serious wounds with little to no medical supplies to do anything about it. Four is pale, but the bandages and makeshift stitch work Hyrule managed to scavenge up from their destroyed camp has saved Four’s life… for now.

“We need to follow after them,” Hyrule says as he finishes up spreading the paste. He gets out the bandages and starts to unroll it.

“And do what?” Four growls and sucks in a breath and Hyrule moves his arm so he can get a better angle for the bandages. “There’s too many of them.”

“We can’t just leave them.”

“But it’s suicide.”

“We’re heroes of courage, we’ll find a-”

“So are they!” Four snaps. “You saw them, they were all helpless. Those monsters know how to fight us.”

Hyrule scowls. “We will find a way.”

“You saw Wild. All that blood on him and no wound. He was exhausted. You know what that means? They killed him. They know our powers, our weaknesses, our- ow!”

“Sorry,” Hyrule says and stands up from his work. He glances around the camp and smiles when he sees something glittering in the moonlight. “We’ll be just fine.”

He walks over to the object and picks it up, admiring the way the light of the moon shines blue on the blade. Of course the Master Sword wouldn’t let evil take her, she would stay behind to help rescue the others.

-o-o-o-o-

It isn’t hard to track the monsters, they caught seven out of nine heroes, what do they have to be stealthy about? Hyrule and Four find signs of them everywhere as they go through the canyon and eventually out of it. There’s footsteps in the moist ground from the morning dew, there’s broken branches with tufts of fur when a boar rubs too close to a tree. The undergrowth is trampled and there’s not a single sign of animal life around.

An entire day passes and Hyrule has resorted to carrying Four on his shoulders even though he himself is exhausted. The monsters may have not cared to cover their tracks, but they also don’t seem to care about stopping for a break. The sun is sinking again and Four hardly has his eyes open anymore, the bandages on his shoulder are starting to turn brown with dirt and sweat.

For a second, he thinks that he should stop. That it’s useless. There’s no point in going on, if these monsters are able to take down Time and Warrior and Wild and  _all of them_ , there is nothing Hyrule and Four can do, even with the master sword.

He shakes his head, desperate to keep those thoughts away. He can’t lose hope, especially now when everyone needs him.

He pushes on.

-o-o-o-o-

Hyrule is close to collapsing when he finally manages to catch up to the monsters and their captives. They have been trudging through the dark forest for hours on end, the moon is high in the sky once again. Four hasn’t done anything but slowly blink and say one worded answers whenever Hyrule asks him anything, which Hyrule is worried about, but he is forced to push that out of his mind as he comes to a edge of a clearing against the face of a cliff. In the middle of the cliff wall is a giant stone door where two Yiga stand guard.

“Are… they in there?” Four asks tiredly.

Hyrule slowly lowers them both to the ground and Four groans when his shoulder is shifted. Hyrule has to find a fairy or health potion… and fast.

“You stay here, I’m going in,” Hyrule says. He’s about to stand up and take out the guards when Four grabs his sleeve.

“They’re going to kill you…” he says, his voice is so quiet and weak. It’s funny how a simple arrow wound could do that with time and no medical equipment. “You’re exhausted.”

“I can’t just leave them.”

Four gives him a disbelieving look before he lets out a groan and closes his eyes.

“Go kick ass,” he says simply.

Hyrule nods and slowly pushes himself to his feet.

-o-o-o-o-

The two Yiga guards are easy to take out, which doesn’t bode well since Hyrule can barely walk straight and he’d think a group who has managed to capture seven of his companions would have better security measures.

The stone doors take a lot of energy out of him, but he manages to pry them open enough for him to squeeze through. Inside, he is met with a long, stone hallway with torches hanging near the ceiling. It’s eerily silent, nothing but a somewhat steady rhythm of dropping water to break the quiet. The hall is empty, yet long. A feeling of foreboding washes over him and he swallows nervously.

He wonders where the Lynel is.

He slowly walks down the hallway, his feet tapping the damp brick floor lightly and the Master Sword held out in his hands. He meets no one.

His heart is pounding, and it’s force increases with each step. It’s getting difficult to breath and he’s sure he’s about to hyperventilate when he finally comes to a hall perpendicular to main one. He tilts his head around the corner and is met with just another long expanse of walkway. Although, there’s doors connected to this one.

He sucks in a breath of stale air and begins to walk down, but the sound of someone else’s footsteps crash through the silence and his throat bobs with anticipation and fear. He grabs the handle of the nearest door and, thank Hylia, it opens. He closes it behind him and flattens himself against the wall as the footsteps and small chatter of his enemy walks past. He lets out a sigh of relief when it falls quiet again, and he’s about to leave when a small whine reaches his ears.

He turns his gaze from the door and his eyes widen when he sees a familiar wolf tied down and locked in a small cage in the corner of the room. A muzzle is placed over its snout and a strange collar is wrapped tight around its neck. The Wolf looks up at him with wide, gleaming, tired eyes.

“Wolfie,” Hyrule breathes out.

The animal lifts its head and lets out a small, muffled bark before it gets to its paws. It presses against the cage and Hyrule notices chains looping around its paws and the bars.

“You poor thing,” Hyrule whispers as he crosses the room. He kneels down next to the cage and finds the latch. The wolf watches him with its blue eyes as Hyrule works on opening the door. It remains still as Hyrule begins to work on the muzzle and chains.

The moment the wolf is free, it jumps out of the cage and lifts its paws above its neck and scratches at the collar. Frustrated growls rumble through the air over to Hyrule.

“Let me help you…” Hyrule says as he puts his hands down on the wolf’s neck. He whips his hands away quickly when the wolf turns and bears sharp teeth in a snarl. Hyrule swallows nervously and holds up his arms. The wolf has never been hostile to him before…

Suddenly, the wolf cuts off the growling and almost looks ashamed. It slowly pads towards Hyrule and lowers its head, ears flat against it’s skull. Hyrule slowly lowers his hands back onto the collar and when the wolf doesn’t attack, he gets to work at unlocking the uncomfortable looking equipment.

When the collar finally snaps off, something surprising and totally unexpected happens.

The wolf changes, and in a blink of an eye, Twilight is standing there and rubbing his neck angrily.

“Wh-”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Twilight growls, and for the first time Hyrule can recognize the voice of a beast in his friends speech, “the others, we need to find them.”

“Y-yeah…”

-o-o-o-o-

“Over here,” Twilight says and Hyrule struggles to keep up. The enemies base is a maze and Hyrule is honestly surprised that Twilight even knows where he’s going. “Wild is over here…”

Hyrule swallows and follows after. He feels like his legs are going to give out, but the others are too important. They have to save them. Twilight has told him a little about what has happened, and none of it is good. Every single hero has been rendered powerless and they have been separated throughout the maze like base until Hyrule and Four could be found. Wild has received the worst of it though, with the Champion’s powers, the Yiga have taken special care to render Wild completely helpless. One of the techniques they’ve used is killing him every ten or fifteen minutes, just to keep him exhausted. Hyrule doesn’t think he can handle figuring out how many times Wild has been murdered in cold blood in the past day and a half.

“How do you know he’s over here,” Hyrule gasps. Twilight puts a finger to his lips and shoves Hyrule against the wall and shifts into a wolf again. Before Hyrule can say anything, Twilight lurches forward and jumps on a Bokoblin that Hyrule somehow hasn’t noticed was walking around the corner. Twilight tears into its throat and the monster goes still a few seconds later.

For some reason, Hyrule feels sick to his stomach.

Twilight lifts his snout and sniffs the air before he turns back into his Hylian form. “I can smell him,” he says simply as he wipes black blood from his mouth, then he continues his sprint down the hall. Hyrule follows after, not inclined to argue.

They turn multiple corners and dash down long hallways for what felt like hours until Twilight stops in his tracks right outside a door that looks like any other the the hostile maze. Twilight slowly puts his hand on the door, looking pale, and pushes it open. Hyrule instantly wants to gag at the smell of blood that hits him, but all he can do is stare with wide eyes as Twilight sprints across the room towards where Wild is hanging limp from the ceiling, his wrists bloodied from the tight manacles holding him a foot off the ground.

“Cub-” Twilight chokes out and reaches up to undo Wild’s restraints. There’s so much blood. It’s painting the walls and pooling on the ground. It’s soaking Wild’s clothes and staining his skin. Hyrule wants to throw up.

Wild blinks his eyes like it’s the hardest thing in the world to do as Twilight finally releases him and lowers him to the ground. There isn’t a wound to be seen, but Wild looks like he’s at death’s door.

“Wild, talk to me-” Twilight says and brushes Wild’s soaked hair from his face.

Wild looks up to him… and smirks.

Alarms scream at Hyrule and he gets the sudden urge to get the hell out of there, but he’s rooted to the ground as Twilight is thrown across the room and slammed into the wall by a Yiga soldier, Wild is nowhere to be seen. Twilight looks horrified and Hyrule can’t believe they forgot that the Yiga are experts of disguise.

Hyrule whips his hand down to the Master Sword and unsheathes it, but the Yiga pulls a knife out and shoves it under Twilight’s jaw.

There’s the sound of clapping behind him.

Hyrule spins around and sees nothing but shadows.

But then, the Shadows blink red.

“There you are,” the Shadow says, smirking. It steps forward and a group of monsters follow after it. Hyrule’s stomach drops when he sees Four and Wild, both unconscious and held up by the enemies. “Now, I have all nine.”

-o-o-o-o-

“Dark Link,” Twilight hisses and the Yiga soldier presses the knife further against his throat. Hyrule swallows nervously and takes a step back as the Shadow approaches further. A Lizalfols makes an excited gurgle as the Shadow pulls out a dark sword of its own.

“Are you scared of me?” The Shadow asks with eyes gleaming playfully.

Hyrule lifts the sword up higher and raises his chin even though he feels so very small. His heart is pounding so loud he’s sure everyone can hear it, but he’s going to stand his ground. He’s not going to give up.

He’s not-

The Shadow lunges and Hyrule just manages to block the blow. It’s gotten better. Stronger than the last time he’s fought it. Hyrule digs his feet into the ground and shoves the Shadow off of him, but the Shadow just whips it’s sword forward again. The sharp blade slices through Hyrule’s shirt and he stumbles backwards. He is just able to protect himself as another swing of the sword comes down on him. The Shadow leans forward, grinning.

“It’s taken forever for my plan to come together,” it says, “so many years of trying to kill each version of you, of trying to get here. You’re death will bring him back to this world.”

Hyrule feels chills run down his spine. Him?

“Ganon?” He whispers. He remembers, his last adventure when he set out to awaken Zelda from her sleep. The monsters wanted to catch him and sacrifice him to revive their leader. “You want to bring back Ganon?”

The Shadow laughs and kicks Hyrule in his stomach. Hyrule falls back and rolls out of the way of another kick.

“That loser? He’s a disgrace,” the Shadow yells and Hyrule scrambles to his feet. He can see Twilight glaring daggers but his attention is brought back to the Shadow as he blocks another blow with the Master Sword. “He’s a failure. No, what will happen is that all nine of you will die, and the real evil will return. Demise. He will reign free.”

Hyrule feels terror take control. Demise. The name sends shivers down his spine and he has no idea why, or who it is. Everyone talks about Ganon, or Ganondorf, or Calamity Ganon, but Demise? It sounds evil and dark, unbeatable.

The Shadow is grinning and the monsters behind it are chuckling and shuffling their feet in excitement and for a moment, Hyrule almost drops the sword and gives up there. He’s terrified. He doesn’t know why. He needs to fight but he can’t. He’s not like the others. He is just a simple traveler, he can’t do this. He should give up there, save the energy…

But then, he sees Four weakly blink his eyes open and Twilight snarl at the Yiga assassin and glare at the Shadow with the power of a thousand suns. The sword feels heavy in his hands but he tightens his grip.

This time, he’s the one who swings, the one to get blocked. Red eyes widen in surprise but Hyrule continues on. He’s fought this demon before. He’s  _beaten_  it before. He can do it again. He has help now, he has people he needs to protect.

He has hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments and support on Doubt! Like, holy shit I didn't think so many of you would like that one as much as you all did. 
> 
> Until next time <3


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